Through the Veil

by Walker, Shiloh

  The waste of the last thirty-plus years was finally coming to an end. All of his sacrifices would soon pay off. That is if this bastard ever stopped pacing, thinking and muttering to himself. “Char’s only child,” Dais offered helpfully.

  “Yes.” The Warlord grinned, a wicked grin that looked a little too gleeful, a little too mean. “A Daisha at my side could help me secure my place as High Lord. It’s just a matter of hours, really, before the current High Lord goes to greet the earth.”

  “A Daisha is indeed a fine prize.”

  “Hmmm.” The Warlord—his name was Yashin—tugged thoughtfully on his lower lip. He was a bit young for his rank—his hair had barely grown out past his collar, and he had yet to begin showing any sign of aging. But the stone at his neck didn’t lie. It was a deep, rich shade of blue, just a few shades lighter than Char’s had been. Young and powerful—both qualities would work in Dais’s favor. Youth often went hand in hand with recklessness. Dais didn’t need a Warlord that was going to think through every single move he made, although Yashin wasn’t proving to be as impulsive as Dais had hoped. And the power—that power was going to lift and hold the gate so that Dais could leave behind his destroyed homeworld.

  “You can lead me to this Daisha?” Yashin asked. “You know where to find her? If somebody has already tried to grab her once, she will be watched closely.”

  Satisfied, Dais grinned. “Yes. I can find her.” He had no doubt that Kalen would be moving the camp, and if Dais knew his so-called leader, then he knew where Kalen was going to lead the army. There was one place where Kalen’s men wouldn’t be able to travel in the secure formation that Kalen preferred. They would have to travel in a long, narrow line, traversing through a dangerous, rocky gulch. On the other side there lay safety. The narrow gulch could be guarded by a relatively small force, and there were plenty of niches on the mountain face where troops could lie in wait for an attacker, picking them off by twos and threes.

  But to get there, they had to get through that narrow, treacherous passage. All Dais had to do was wait there with enough men. A few minutes’ time was all he needed, and the Warlord could gate in, get Lelia, and they would be gone before the gate weakened and fell.

  It would be so very simple.

  Lee paused and stared up at the towering rock face off to her right. It stretched up and up into the sky, blotting out the sun. Time was running short. She knew where she was, thanks to these bizarre memories. Her memories, yet not hers. There was a veritable rock fortress on the other side of this passage, and once Kalen and his forces were in there, nothing less than a nuclear blast could get them out of there.

  Which meant Lee had to make her move before then.

  “Lee.”

  She turned her head to find Kalen standing just a breath away. He stared at her, and she saw the echo of some suppressed emotion in his eyes. Pain, almost. She’d been acting like a cold bitch to him ever since they had pulled out of the camp hours ago—barely looking at him, shying away every time he reached for her. She could see why he thought she was mad, and she hated knowing she was adding to his problems.

  Like he didn’t have enough to deal with.

  It’s going to hurt leaving him, no matter what. Pulling back now isn’t going to help. Might even hurt him more—don’t disappear from his life and leave him thinking that you blame him for anything.

  Some of the best advice she’d ever given herself, Lee supposed. She was debating how to close the distance she’d forced between them when Kalen sighed. His shoulders slumped just a little and he turned away. Lee reached out, caught his arm. When Kalen paused and looked back over his shoulder at her, Lee closed that distance between them, pressing her body to his. She slid her arms around his waist and snuggled close. Lee felt the slow, steady beat of his heart against her cheek and the brush of his breath against her hair as he wrapped his arms around her and held her tight.

  “I love you,” she whispered quietly. “I didn’t realize love could come like this, so hard, so fast. So completely. But it did. I love you and nothing will ever change that.”

  Hearing his sharp intake of breath, she lifted her head and stared up at him. “I’m not mad at you, Kalen. Not about anything.”

  Rough, calloused fingers touched her face, tracing over the arch of her brow, along her nose, lingering on her lips. “Not mad? You don’t blame me for this? I forced you here, Lee. If I hadn’t kept pressing, you might have remained in that safe world your mother sent you to, ignorant of all of this. Safe from it.”

  “And I wouldn’t have ever known you were anything more than a dream.” Turning her head, she pressed her mouth to the back of his hand, kissing him gently. Then she forced herself to smile at him. “I don’t blame you—not for anything.”

  Kalen’s eyes closed and he pulled her back up against him, tucking her close and tight against his body as he bent over hers. Not even a breath of air existed between them, and for a few brief seconds, Lee let the warmth and strength of his body surround her. She felt so safe there. So loved. And accepted—completely and totally. Without her saying a word, Kalen seemed to understand the chaotic mess that had been inside her since she’d first come to him. He seemed to understand her frustration, her confusion, and the way she missed some of the things from the world she’d left behind.

  She wasn’t going to find that in Anqar. The way her father had told her about slaves being given new names as a way to eliminate any and all connections with their past lives, no, she wasn’t going to end up with some guy that loved her and respected her and understood that she missed coffee, computers and chocolate.

  It was a bitch to know that this was probably one of the last times she’d be able to really feel like she was her own person. But Lee wasn’t going to wail and moan about what she had to do. She was losing enough—she’d be damned if she’d lose her dignity and pride as well.

  “What’s wrong, Lee?” Kalen said softly against her ear. “You’re so quiet. If you’re not angry with me, then it has to be something else bothering you.”

  Mute, she shook her head. She could lie. Tell him she was just shaken by what had happened, the close calls of the past day, but if she talked, Lee had a bad feeling she might start crying. If he saw her crying, he wouldn’t leave her alone. He might even try to look inside her thoughts and see if he couldn’t find out the problems himself.

  That wasn’t about to happen. So instead of replying, she just stood there and let him hold her.

  “The gate!”

  “Shit.”

  “Through the ravine, hurry!” Kalen called out, yelling so that he was heard over the worried voices of his men and women.

  The earth rumbled below, and Kalen felt like his stomach dropped to his knees. Tension hung in the air, and the overcast sky suddenly went black as thunderheads piled up overhead. They could only move through the ravine in groups of people seven or eight across. Considering he had thousands of troops to get through, that wasn’t fast enough.

  “Archers and snipers to the ridge,” he said, his voice grim as he started moving to higher ground. Less than half of his force was through the ravine, and the gate was being forced open with a speed that was going to unleash a hellacious storm right on top of them.

  The ground rumbled again, and somebody off to his left cursed long and hard. “Wyrms, last bleeding thing we need . . .”

  Kalen shook his head, smiling a little. “This close to Sojourn Gap, the ground is rockier than hell. There are sheets of pure rock all around us.” He kicked at the thin soil under his boots and grinned. “The wyrms try to come after us here, they’ll end up with one hell of a headache.”

  Even those colossal bastards couldn’t move bedrock.

  Morne appeared at his side, and Kalen jerked his chin back toward the steadily moving line. “Go with them—get them to the Gap and make sure all is secure.”

  In a mild voice, Morne replied, “You are the commander, Kalen. Would make more sense for you to get your ass to s
afety and leave somebody else to bring up the rear.”

  “Morne—”

  The earth pitched under their feet, a violent upheaval that sent Kalen to one knee. Down below, his people staggered, and Kalen shouted, “Keep moving, damn it!” In a lower voice, he said to Morne, “What in the hell are those crazy fools up to, forcing a gate that fast? They want to kill themselves along with us?”

  Grim, Morne muttered, “We need Eira right now.”

  “Maybe I can help.” The voice came from overhead. Both men looked up, and then immediately jumped back to avoid being landed on by a tall, tanned blur that came hurtling down from above. Elina smiled at them, a mischievous, amused grin as she jerked on her climbing rope. The retractable claws on the grappling hook came free, and the thin rope came slithering down the mountain like a snake. She wound it around her arm and hooked it to the utility belt around her waist.

  Stunned by her sudden appearance, Kalen glanced up the sheer face of the mountain and then back at her. “You got here fast” was about the only thing he could think of.

  Elina’s sunny smile never faded. “I had a feeling I wouldn’t be gone long.”

  “Your children?” Morne asked, his voice just a little too censuring.

  Elina gave him a cool look. “My kids are at Elswic. About as safe as I can hope for. I’m raising my kids the way Granna Eira raised me, to understand their responsibilities and to have honor. How responsible would it be if I stayed safe in the east while all hell is breaking loose here?”

  “The kind who is also a mother and has to put the needs of her children first?” Morne suggested.

  Kalen started to object, but Elina glanced at him and shook her head. Then she faced Morne, a disdainful look darkening her pretty, vivacious features. “I am, you overgrown idiot. If the resistance of Angeles does fall, the rest of Aishen will follow close on its heels. Saving this territory means saving the rest of our sorry asses.” Then she sniffed and gave him a derisive look from head to toe. “Although some of the sorry asses are less deserving than others.”

  With that, she shifted the pack on her back and headed down the steep path, moving west toward the gate at a fast pace. Over her shoulder, she called out, “Keep the line moving, Kalen. I’ll do what I can about the gate.”

  Kalen looked at Morne and found him staring after Elina with narrow eyes. “I forgot how much she likes you,” he said.

  Morne shot him a malevolent look.

  With a laugh, Kalen said, “Come on. Get to the Gap, old man. This isn’t over yet.”

  Morne’s dark eyes followed the slim, long form of Elina for a moment longer, and then he looked back at Kalen. “You should go, Kalen. Stay by your woman. Keep her safe.”

  “Responsibilities,” Kalen murmured. He shook his head. “You keep her safe until I can get to her.”

  That said, he dismissed Morne and moved down the incline to organize some of the troops that had started milling around when the quake hit.

  One of the archers whistled out a warning, and the outriders moved to form a shield along the tail end of the line. The stink of sulfur filled the air only moments before the pale, bone white flesh of the demons became visible through the trees. The forest gave way to rocky soil and boulders along this stretch of land, giving the demons little cover to hide behind. The sun was still tracking slowly through the sky, moving toward the west, but sunset was still a few hours away.

  If the Warlords had sent the demons out before sunset, things were not looking good. “Ready the cold-beams,” he called, and the order echoed up and down the line. Bron, the lieutenant who had served under Dais, stood at Kalen’s side, and Kalen jerked his head toward the line. “You stay with them. Keep the line moving. If I fall, you make damn sure they get to the Gap.”

  Bron lingered, apparently under the same delusion that Kalen should find someplace safe. Safety was becoming more and more of an illusion at this point. If they wanted safety, they were going to have to make their world safe. “Get to the line, Bron. That’s an order.”

  Bron beat a quick retreat, and Kalen muttered under his breath, “Don’t worry, kid. I’m not going down here.”

  Not yet. Not now. Lee was waiting for him.

  The discordant music of the gate jangled in her head like a kid banging on piano keys. Lee wanted to hide under a pillow, plug her ears—anything to drown out that harsh, dissonant melody.

  It sounded ill. Weak. Almost like a death scream. Part of her understood why—the gate was being pushed too hard, too fast, and it was resisting. It was like somebody had taken a piece of clay, and instead of gently molding it into shape, they had grabbed at both ends and jerked.

  The resulting work was a mess—ugly, brittle and weak.

  But she sensed the power of the Sirvani working underneath that mess, strengthening the gate, shoring up the weak points. The gate wasn’t going to fall. Not yet, at least. Not without help. Part of her wanted to reach out, find the weakness and the frailties, the evil strains and the darkness hidden within the gate power, find them and fix them. She could even feel that weird yet familiar gift unfurling and reaching out.

  Something within the gate recognized and reached out in return. The magick in Lee recoiled, and something immense seemed to open up around her, recognizing the dual magicks within her and wanting them. Lee tore herself away.

  She shivered. Morne had paused by her shelter briefly and tucked a blanket around her. That had been hours ago, and although he hadn’t approached her since, she knew he was watching her. Watching over her, while Kalen was still overseeing the battle waging outside the Gap.

  Sunset had come and gone, and with the sun’s disappearance, demons came boiling up out of the forest like ants, striking in organized little hordes and trying to break the line of troops. So far, they hadn’t succeeded. People milled around Lee, their voices a raucous cacophony in her ears. So many people, so close—realistically, she had known Kalen was in charge of this many people.

  But knowing it and actually seeing it were two different things.

  She hadn’t ever seen so many people in one place, not at a rock concert, not at a ball game. It was maddening.

  It was also the chance she’d been waiting for. From the corner of her eye, she watched Morne, and finally, he edged just out of sight. He’d left two men watching her, and one of them was busy trying to fix a jammed pulsar. The other kept one eye on her and the other on the aperture in the mountains. Sojourn Gap, the last stronghold Kalen’s men had.

  Getting out and into the gulch was going to be a challenge, but with all the fighting she could hear going on, she could manage. Her chance to slip away had come too quickly and she wasn’t ready. You won’t ever be ready, Lee told herself. Might as well get it done now.

  She slid away, melting into the crowd of people and keeping her ears pricked for any sign that somebody had noticed her absence. She’d almost made it through the crowd when a hard, strong hand closed around her arm. Morne jerked her to a stop, and she looked up into his furious face. “I told you not to try,” he warned her in a pitiless voice.

  He started to drag her away from the aperture, and Lee jerked furiously against his hold. “Damn it, Morne. Don’t you get—”

  Thunder boomed overhead. Over the past few hours, the quakes had settled to tremors, but now the earth started to shudder again. It felt like one of those moving floors in a funhouse, though, not a real earthquake. From the corner of her eye, she saw Morne turn his gaze to the west. Lee imagined he couldn’t see much over the foothills and the trees, but she saw what held his attention.

  Since the sun had set, the brilliant blue of the gate had cast neon shadows against the sky, illuminating the clouds. But now the brilliant blue was fading, and fading fast. A slight smile curled Morne’s lips and he muttered, “That’s a good little witch.”

  “What witch?” Lee demanded as he once more began dragging her through the crowd.

  But he didn’t answer. He kept pulling on her arm, takingher far
ther and farther away from the narrow crevice that was the only exit. Sheer rock cliffs surrounded them on all sides. Sojourn Gap had one way in. One way out. Water was supplied through an underground source, and Kalen had long since had the foresight to prepare all the strongholds for a day such as this.

  Damn near impenetrable, Sojourn Gap could be protected simply by placing troops along the steep slopes of the gulch and picking off invaders as they came through. But the very things that made it such a safe haven were the very things that were going to keep Lee trapped here.

  The cave in front of her yawned like a big, black mouth and Lee struggled in earnest, but Morne ignored her. “I’m not going in the fucking cave,” she snarled. Have to get out . . . have to have to have to . . .

  Voice cold and uncaring, Morne responded, “Oh, yes. You are.”

  When she stopped walking, he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. Lee continued to struggle and buck and squirm, and he let her, doing nothing to stop her until she managed to land a kick in his midsection. Then he clamped an arm around her thighs. “Any more and I’ll spank your pretty butt, Lelia. Kalen might kill me later, but it will be worth it.”

  She just fought harder. For all the good it did her. The man had a grip like iron. And apparently, absolutely no tolerance for disobedience, Lee realized. He dropped her down on the cave floor and backed up. Lee surged to her feet and started forward, only to realize they weren’t alone. At Morne’s back stood twelve of Kalen’s troops. She recognized each and every one of them.

  They stared at her with a dead-serious cast to their features, and she sank back down to the floor.

  She wasn’t going to be able to slip away again.

  Sleep came on her like a summer thunderstorm, totally unexpected and turbulent. Vivid, brilliant dreams, like the ones that had plagued her for so long, followed her once more.

  In her dreams, she stood at the narrow entrance to Sojourn Gap, staring out at the rocky, uneven path that led out of the Gap and straight into hell. The gate seemed larger than life, and on the other side, she saw her father. He stared at her, and for some reason, there was sadness in his eyes. Regret, even. Too late, Daisha. I was too late to save you. You must run.