The arrows cut into the ground near Hydric’s feet. He staggered back. Spirits barely surfaced through the cold, but it was enough for the Domination Volley to commence. The spirits faded back from the Polarist shot, and the Naturalist shot melted the ice from the Polarist shot. The final arrow cut through the air. The auburn trail of the Materialist Anaerobia trickled though the sky, illuminating the canopy above. The arrow stuck into the ground.
The temperature soared. Fires flared up. Spirits surfaced from all around. Violent shrieks from Screechers ripped through the night, and the ferocious growls of the Xanthems rumbled onto the location of the shots. No life forms could be controlled, and chaos broke out.
Hydric looked at his hands in panicked confusion, not being able to control the environment any longer. Sarai stopped in mid-stride and ran back towards the prison. Danger was all around, but she could only think about rescuing Caleb. She had to get him out. She had to set him free. She ran past the dumbfounded Polarists into the prison. The torches flickered from the gust of wind of the door being opened. She glanced around and found Caleb’s cell.
“Caleb!” she yelled, grabbing onto the bars. “I’m gonna get you out.” The Domination Volley did not reach that far back, so she poured a few drops of blood onto the base of the metal door. “Stand back.” She tore off her Materialist canister and threw it at the door. The door warbled and disintegrated from a hissing blast. The temperature in the cell stabilized. She ran in and hugged Caleb.
“We have to wake up Shauna.”
Sarai pulled out another arrow, dipped it in the blood, then she charged it with the Spiritualist Anaerobia. The tip of the arrow cut into Shauna’s skin, invigorating the spirits within her cells.
Shauna’s eyelids flipped open. Her pupils were white from the Hellstate rage. Her head jerked from side to side, focusing on Caleb and then on Sarai. Shauna trudged into the hallway. Spirits hovered past her, scattering her hair across her face. The two men rushed inside.
“Stop her!” Hydric yelled.
It was too late. Her body fell to the ground, and she took control of Hydric. She could feel him fighting her out by lowering his temperature, but her rage was unmatched. She dropped even deeper into the Hellstate. Spirits squealed and hollered — all under Shauna’s command.
She forced Hydric to grab his dagger from its hilt. His muscles quivered, trying to resist her. His eyes shot open, and his body fell to the ground in disobedience. Shauna’s command was far beyond his. She made him jam the dagger into his neck and slowly cut across, blood spilling out of him as his life was no more.
Her spirit reconnected with her, and she sat up, fixing her attention on Xano. He pushed himself against the wall. “No! Stop! Please!” But those words were not enough. Her body collapsed onto the floor again as she took control of Xano.
“Tell me where Raylen is or you will die,” she said to him. Her words were to his spirit, so the others could not hear her.
“I don’t know! He didn’t say!” Xano said, speaking aloud.
“You do know where Raylen is! You said that he’d be here tomorrow!” Caleb yelled.
Xano fought to say the words. “You will never make me talk.” Then he burst out into a laugh. The same annoying laugh that almost sent Gardiv insane. The same laugh that reminded Caleb how cruel this Xano really was. Caleb looked at Shauna, and her blank expression told him that Xano knew nothing. He ran over to Xano and slammed him on the ground, banging the man’s head against the stone. Blood leaked from his skull.
“Tell me!” Caleb snarled.
“I ain’t telling you nothing….”
The fury ransacked Caleb. He glanced around, then he snatched Xano’s knife from his hip. “Then may you never speak again.” Caleb thrust the blade into the man’s heart and watched his life slip away. He stood up and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, leaving the dagger lodged in the man’s chest.
Shauna stood to her feet. Her eyes were no longer white, but they were black. The Hellstate still had control of her. The door to the prison slammed shut, and Uriel ran towards them.
“Uriel! You're alive!” Caleb said.
“The guards tried to prevent that.”
“Xano said you were dead,” Caleb replied.
“Unless he knows something that I don't, then I would say that he lied.”
“How did you find me?” Caleb asked Sarai once he caught his breath.
“Are you upset that I did?”
“Of course not. I left Juten in a hurry, and we came all the way here without you.”
“I couldn’t just let you go off by yourself. It’s not the way of the Pioneers. You may have been upset with me, but one rash decision can lead to death.”
“Well you saved my life, but more than that, you saved Shauna.”
“I can’t take all the credit. I tracked you pretty well until I got deep into Broughtonhaven. I ran into Uriel a few hours ago, and she led me here.”
“You saved my life twice,” said Caleb, nodding to Uriel.
She stared at the ground shamefully. “It’s the least I can do with the crimes that I’ve committed.”
“No need to focus on those now. We still have to find Raylen,” said Caleb.
“Xano didn’t know where Raylen was,” said Shauna. Her eyes were returning to their natural grayish blue, but the bruises and the fatigue still sat on her face.
“Why was he like that? Xano, I mean?” Caleb asked.
“He was mad at me for killing his brother. After the sixth or seventh beating, I just couldn’t take anymore.” She put her head in her hands. The killing seemed to be too much. The Hellstate was taking its toll on her.
Caleb rubbed her back, and he could feel a few more knots from where the guards had tortured her. She still shivered a bit, but her body was relieved to be set free from the cold. “Six or seven?” he asked.
“I don’t know. I lost count after that.” Her voice was muffled through the cracks in her hands.
“Those weren’t men. They were animals,” said Uriel.
Caleb searched the floor and picked up his belt from the ground. “I almost lost this,” he said to Sarai. She didn’t respond, but he could tell that she was antsy from the shock of what he had to say. He put the belt back on.
“So what now?” Uriel asked.
Caleb pressed his boot into a sheet of ice, cracking it. “Xano said that Raylen would be coming tomorrow. I say we wait for him.”
CHAPTER 10
THE CAPTURE
The canopy blocked out the moonlight, but the torches outside of the building cast enough light for Caleb to see. The Screechers and the Xanthems had retreated back into the night, and the prison was only a little more than a pile of rubble from Sarai’s Materialist blasts.
“We can’t wait here. We have to move before they find us,” said Sarai.
“Uriel and I took out the rest of the guards, so they couldn’t have had time to send out for reinforcements,” said Caleb. “Raylen will come tomorrow, and he will see this place in shambles, then he will be alarmed that some of his best people have been killed, though he won't know what happened.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Sarai said.
“It’s not up to you.” Caleb’s resentment towards her returned. He remembered why he left Juten without her. Sarai cut her eyes at him. He could sense her irritation, but he ignored it.
“Caleb’s right,” said Shauna. “We need to wait here. Raylen usually only brings one or two guards with him. We can end this tomorrow if we stay.”
Caleb smiled, satisfied that Shauna agreed with him. “We’ll take him to the Alpha Council and let them decide what to do with him.”
“Why would we take him to the council? The Alphas left us here to die,” said Shauna. “We need to extract him ourselves.”
Caleb sighed and looked off into the night. “We can’t do that. This is a governmental matter, and if we do not want to suffer any sanctions from the council, we are going to
have to do this the right way.”
“The right way?” Shauna asked, leaning forward with her hands out, dark hair draped over the bruises on her forehead. “The right way was for him not to come and slaughter my people. The right way was for me not to be beaten like some kind of dog. There is nothing right about his way, and there surely won’t be anything right about mine.”
“We can’t…”
“Do that? I already know what you’re going to say, Caleb. But we don’t have to. I’ll do it myself.” Her eyes faded from the grayish blue to the dark black, then they retained their natural color again. She held her head to ease the nausea.
“We can’t extract him,” said Sarai. “No matter what we think. To take his emblem would be just as wrong.”
Shauna crossed her arms, shifting her gaze to each of them. “This entire raid was wrong. You all broke sanctions just to come and get me out. The Alphas would not approve of this either.”
“This had to be done,” said Caleb. “I couldn’t stand the thought of what you had to go through.”
“Just like I can’t stand the thought of what my people are enduring right now. We have a chance to end this, and you are going to just sit back and do nothing? You’ve never been this weak, Caleb.”
“Weak? How is justice weak?”
“Justice doesn’t matter to you, just like it doesn’t matter to me. You killed Xano with your own hands, and you didn’t think twice about it!”
Caleb snapped his head to look at Shauna. “I did that for you.”
“You killed one man for one woman. I’d extract one man for an entire province. Your justice seems a lot less harsher than mine.” Her voice was unsteady, and she fumbled over her words through her vexation. “What about Wex? It was you who killed him also. And for what?”
“That was different,” Caleb said.
“How was it different? He threatened Clydenholm, so you took him out. That doesn’t sound any different than what I’m doing.”
“You think I wanted to kill Wex, or Xano for that matter?”
“You can’t hide your emotions from me. I know you did. You wanted to kill Xano before we ever escaped the cell. It was in your heart the entire time.”
“How can you even say that?”
“I know you better than you think. You want to tell me that extracting Raylen is wrong. These aren’t your people he’s killing.”
Caleb pointed at Shauna. “We will not extract him. We will do this the right way.”
“You might. I can’t say the same for myself.”
Sarai put her hand on Caleb’s shoulder to get his attention. “We need to get Gardiv.”
“There’s no way that we’re leaving here. Not with an opportunity like this.”
“I’ll go,” said Uriel.
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea,” said Sarai.
“Why not?” Caleb asked.
“She has not been accepted into the city yet.”
“She’s been there before, and she’s a Wanderer. They’ll let her in just like they did when she came to get me. Uriel, tell Gardiv to meet us at the Alpha Council.”
Uriel nodded and disappeared beneath the canopy.
“If we’re going to do this, we have to do it right,” Sarai said.
Caleb and Sarai got to work by pouring the Materialist Anaerobia on both sides of the road to create a gully that would trap the Polarists. Then they set up their blood canisters nearby, sitting on the ground and hoisted on small wooden platforms from the splintered trees for the sake of visibility.
=====
The morning sun spied beneath the canopy. Sarai and Shauna were stationed on the side of the road where the prison was. Caleb was on the other side of the road. A rickety cart cranked down the road as they expected. The back of the carriage was a shelter, so they couldn’t see who was in it, but the guard who drove was a Polarist.
Caleb waved his hand frantically signaling to Sarai, telling her not to take the shot. There was no way of knowing if Raylen was riding along. The coach came to a stop before it reached the two blood canisters that were hidden within the leaves. The cart opened and two guards stepped out. A heavyset man exited behind them. Easing his hand up, Caleb waited to give Sarai the signal.
“I could just take control of Raylen right now,” Shauna said.
“You can’t do that,” said Sarai. “Remember what Caleb said. We have to do this right.”
Raylen stepped away from the cart and fixed his coat. He looked around in confusion at the devastation. The trees were strewn across the landscape, and water spilled down hill from the melting ice. Raylen eased over to the razed prison, motioning to his guards to look around.
“He’s stepping away from the trap,” Shauna whispered.
“We can’t kill Raylen,” Sarai snapped. “Wait for the guards to step away from him, then we’ll attack.”
“We can’t let him get away either!” Her eyes turned black and her body fell limply to the ground. She entered the Hellstate and took control of Raylen who was trailing behind the three guards.
Raylen reached forward and put his hand on the shoulder of one the guards. The guard turned around, but before he could let out any words, the guard's body froze in place. The other two guards panicked.
“Raylen, what are you doing?” They backed away with their hands in front of them. A bulb of ice encircled one of them and smashed in, crushing the man within it.
“Please don’t.” The other guard begged on his knees. “I have a family. You said you’d protect us. Please don’t kill me.”
Raylen walked slowly to the man, put his hand on his shoulder, and the man was engulfed in a shell of ice.
Sarai shook Shauna’s body. “Let him go!”
Shauna looked blankly at Sarai. Her eyes were still black, but her expression was lost in the darkness. “Not before I rip his emblem out of his chest,” she said. Her voice was strong and fierce. Shauna picked herself up slowly. It took all of her strength to get off the ground, because she was using her power to maintain her hold on Raylen. She stretched out her hand and beckoned to him with her finger. Raylen trekked to her in a stupefied fashion, being controlled by her power.
Spirits surfaced around them. Their low moans and grumbles encompassed her. She stepped towards Raylen and clasped his emblem in her hands, fingernails piercing into his flesh. The spirits flocked to her fingers and cut into his chest.
“Shauna, let him go!” Caleb yelled. He rushed over to her from the other side of the street.
Sarai clenched her by the arm, and she jerked away. “Shauna!” she warned. Shauna did not respond. Sarai grabbed her around her neck and put her blade to Shauna’s throat. “Don’t make me do this.”
The apparitions cut into Raylen’s flesh, but then they retreated back into the spiritual plane. Shauna dropped her hand by her side and escaped from the Hellstate, releasing Raylen as her eyes regained their natural color.
“You would kill me to save him?” She glared at Sarai, not being concerned that the blade was pressed into her throat.
The temperature dropped as Raylen entered The Deficit, but Caleb pressed a Naturalist charged dagger into his back without breaking the skin. “You’re coming with us.”
Raylen raised his hands in the air in surrender. “I’m sorry. Whatever it is, I can fix it.”
“There’s nothing to fix. You’re coming with us,” said Sarai.
The spirits roared around him, and he shuddered at their voices. Shauna’s eyes faded in and out of blackness as the Hellstate tempted to overpower her. She resisted the urge, but her disdain for Raylen lowered her reluctance. She couldn’t tell if she was losing control or if her control had already been lost.
“If you turn me into the council,” Raylen begged with his hands in the air, “they’ll want to extract me.”
“You deserve nothing less, you disgusting slug!” Shauna could barely keep herself from dropping into the Hellstate.
“Shauna, you have to calm down,
” said Caleb. “You can’t let Raylen do this to you.”
She closed her eyes and crossed her arms, listening to Caleb’s spirit. It pulsed and vibrated from the rage, but his outward response was calm and peaceful. She used his stability to navigate herself back to full consciousness.
“Listen,” Raylen pleaded. “You can’t let them do this to me. Everyone will think I’m a failure, that I couldn’t do what I said I would do.”
“You mean kill my people!” Shauna screamed.
Caleb put his hand on her back to settle her down.
“No. No. That wasn’t it. I just wanted our provinces to work together. That’s all. I wanted to see the Polarists and the Spiritualists finally come to…”
“Your lies are the filth that clogs my ears,” retorted Shauna. “I don’t want to hear you speak of my people again, or these two will not be able to save you.”
“Are we taking the cart?” Sarai asked.
“It would be faster, but it’s not safe, not with Polarists roaming the territory.” Caleb jerked Raylen’s arm and pushed him forward to head north on the half day journey from Irez towards Bachenlaw, the city of the Alpha Council.
=====
The sun anticipated their movements from high above. The light was scarce underneath the canopy except for a few light intrusions that cut in through the tree line. The forest was alive with the shrieks of the Screechers and the moans of the spirits whose grayish purple hue sprayed eerie glowing lights across the foliage. The dried terrain crunched beneath their feet, and the breeze scampered past them in rapid gusts.
“You don’t have to do this,” said Raylen. “We could come to an agreement. I can promote each of you to high ranking positions. That’s what you want, right?” His cloak rustled as he motioned to each them.
“I’m getting tired of hearing you speak,” Shauna sighed. She adjusted the Polarist clothes that her captors had given to her, but she couldn’t get comfortable.
Infused (Book 2 of The Pioneers Saga) Page 16
