The Castes and the OutCastes: The Complete Trilogy

by Davis Ashura

  Jaresh gaped in awe. He couldn't believe what had just happened. A battle had taken place in the skies above Ashoka, and it had been a battle unlike anything he had ever seen or read about. Thunder had boomed loud enough to tumble buildings, white-hot Fireballs had burned the very air, and lightning had lit the smoke-filled sky, whining like a horde of locusts.

  Rukh had become something extraordinary. He had become . . . Jaresh wasn't sure what exactly, but his brother was now like Suwraith, an ethereal being of spirit and might. And while the Queen was old in Her power and had greatly overmatched Jaresh's brother, nevertheless, Rukh had never retreated—he was an Ashokan warrior, a Kumma who understood his duty. But there had come a moment when he had looked moments away from defeat. The hammer strikes heavy enough to level a mountain, the blows from the Sorrow Bringer's golden staff that smacked hard enough to splinter glaciers—they had taken their toll.

  But then Jessira had risen up. She had transformed in the same manner as Rukh. Together they'd faced down the Sorrow Bringer, and it had been the Queen who had fled the battle.

  “We must rally our warriors before the Chimeras reorganize!” Dar'El shouted, breaking Jaresh out of his amazed reverie.

  *The Nobeasts are already fleeing in all directions,* Thrum said.

  *Are there any Human warriors about?* Jaresh asked.

  Shon raised his nose to the air. *There is a large group of a hundred or so just down the hill,* he said. *There are more of them scattered throughout this area.* He turned to Jaresh, his head tilted to the side. *What happened to Jessira?* he asked. *Do Humans ordinarily become like the Demon Wind when faced with danger?*

  Aia batted him on the nose. *Foolish kitten,* she chided, fondness taking the sting from her gesture. *Our Humans are not ordinary. They are extraordinary.*

  Jaresh set aside their discussion and turned to Nanna. He passed on Thrum and Shon's information.

  Nanna nodded. “Good. We'll meet with up with those warriors down below and organize them. Suwraith's creatures no longer have the Queen to defend them from our attacks. If we can rally our forces quickly enough, we can crush the Chimeras before they have a chance to flee the city.”

  His gaze fell to Sign, who was slumped on the ground. Her wounds had been attended to, and while Jaresh had done his best to Heal her injuries, he'd never been very good at that particular Talent. As a result, they'd taken the expedient of placing heavy bandages over her wounds.

  “She should stay here,” Amma said. “So should Li-Choke and his Chimeras. They're likely to be attacked if they're seen out on the streets, even if you and Jaresh accompany them.”

  “We'll also leave Aia and Shon,” Jaresh said. “I want to make sure you're protected in case the Chimeras come back.”

  Jaresh's gaze fell upon Rector's corpse, and a wellspring of grief rose up. Rector and Jaresh hadn't always gotten along, but in the end, he had come to respect the older man's integrity and honesty. In the end, Rector had been a friend, one who had given his life so Jaresh and his family might live. Without his presence here on this day, maybe Rukh and Jessira wouldn't have had the opportunity to do what they had. Without Rector, maybe they all would have been overrun by the tide of Chimeras that had come against the Shektan House Seat. For that reason and so many more, the man deserved to be remembered and his actions celebrated.

  “We'll make sure his body is returned to his family,” Amma said.

  Several days later, a crowd of warriors gathered under a blood red sky. Included with them was a tired and grimy Jaresh. He stood shoulder-to-shoulder alongside the others. They were silent, wary, and watchful as they held the width of Holt Try near Trell Rue in preparation for the final hard push to reclaim the city.

  After Nanna had brought order to random, wandering warriors, the broken Ashokan Army had swiftly reorganized. At that point, Marshall Tanhue and his intact brigade had linked up with them. From then on, more and more warriors had gathered, and the Ashokan Army had regrouped. Quickly, running battles had broken out throughout the streets of the city.

  The Chimeras had the numbers, but the Ashokans had the will, the hunger, and the skill. They had seen Rukh and Jessira put Suwraith to flight, a scene of salvation that raised the possibility that the Sorrow Bringer's reign of evil might finally come to an end. The Chimeras had also seen that same battle, but for them, Suwraith's defeat had been a disaster. As a result, while the Queen's creatures still fought, they fought with the half-hearted motions of the broken-willed. The Ashokans, on the other hand, fought with the ferocity of the righteous.

  It was ironic. On the day when Ashoka had been invaded by over a Plague of Chimeras—over three hundred thousand of the Fan Lor Kum—a miracle had occurred, transforming the disastrous to the euphoric. The Sorrow Bringer had been defeated and Her creatures decimated, destroyed, and whittled down to less than a quarter of their original number. A terrible morning had yielded a dawn of hope for all Arisa.

  And now, two days after that momentous event, gathered in Trell Rue was the final large grouping of Chimeras. It was three Shatters, a little over forty-five thousand. This would be the final reckoning, and afterward, Ashoka—though still aflame—would be reclaimed. The Rahails had already expanded the Oasis back to the Inner Wall, and in another few weeks, they might be able to push it all the way back to the Outer Wall.

  Jaresh considered all this as he studied the Chimeras gathered in the distance. Among them strode the Baels, easily differentiated by their height and wide horns. Their whips glowed and their tridents pointed out directions as they barked commands. Somehow, the horned commanders had reestablished control here. In all the other parts of the city, the Chimeras had simply run amok, screaming like rabid dogs until they'd been put down.

  There was a stirring amongst the Chimeras, and ten Baels stepped forward from their ranks. They were distinguished by the plethora of feathers dangling from their horns. They had to be senior members of the Plague. In addition, one of them was red-feathered, the SarpanKum. He continued onward while the others waited closer to the lines of their Chimeras.

  When the SarpanKum was little more than a bow shot away, he called out. “We surrender,” he said in a booming voice. “We will put down our weapons. We won't fight you. We only ask that you let us live until the Queen's final reckoning is determined.”

  Standing nearby to Jaresh was Marshall Tanhue. He gathered with his officers. One of them gestured for Jaresh to attend them.

  Jaresh frowned, not sure why he was being asked to join the High Command.

  “You know Rukh and Jessira better than anyone,” Marshall Tanhue said. “Can they defeat the Sorrow Bringer?”

  “I think they already have,” he said. “Before She fled, I could tell that Rukh had Her timing. He was figuring out Her rhythms.”

  “Then where are they?” growled an older officer. “Why haven't we heard word from them yet if they were victorious?”

  Jaresh shrugged again. “I don't know,” he said tamping down his worry. “But even if he couldn't defeat Suwraith on his own, with Jessira's help, I'm sure he—or rather they—could.”

  The Marshall stared off at the remnant of the Eastern Plague through assessing eyes. “We've lost enough warriors these past few days,” he finally decided. “And it would be good to lose no one else.” His jaw briefly clenched. “We'll accept the Chimeras' surrender, and figure out what to do with them later. For now, we need to take care of our wounded, get these fires under control, and pray that Rukh and Jessira won against the Queen.”

  Jaresh knew that it went without saying that if the Sorrow Bringer was the one who returned to Ashoka, those same Chimeras would immediately be put to the knife.

  Lienna's confidence was broken. She who had been the death of an entire world. She who was singular and omnipotent. She who had never tasted defeat in all Her long life had been challenged, and for the first time in two millennia, Her might had been found wanting. For the first time in two millennia, Lienna had been forced to flee
a battle. For the first time in two millennia, a new Elemental had been birthed, and while he'd proven to be a worthy foe, Lienna had been well on Her way to destroying him. But then had come another Elemental, a woman.

  Two beings in one day had become as Lienna. It shouldn't have been possible. Mistress Arisa had promised that only She would—

  Lienna halted Her thoughts. Mistress Arisa wasn't real. She had never been real. Mistress Arisa was merely a product of Lienna's delusions, a figment of Her fevered imagination.

  “Am I also a delusion then?” Mother asked.

  “You are real enough,” Lienna growled. “Just as these new Elementals are also real. But I will destroy them, just as I did You. I will kill them just as I have all the others who dared oppose My immortal will.” Lienna spoke the words with as much confidence as She could muster. She tried to reclaim the focus and self-certainty, the belief that She could carry the day no matter how severe the odds.

  “Since You discarded Your flesh, there have been none who could truly be said to have contended with You, Daughter,” Mother said with a chuckle. “And as for immortal . . . I think that on this day, You will learn otherwise.”

  “I am immortal,” Lienna insisted.

  “You lie to Yourself,” Mother said, “but You can no longer lie to Me.”

  Lienna tried to ignore Mother's words. They weren't true. They couldn't be true. “Where's Father?” She demanded. He usually had some pithy advice She might be able to use.

  “With Devesh,” Mother replied. “He ascended today, and if You're truly lucky, You may one day be fortunate enough to join Him.” Mother seemed to shake Her head. “However, I fear the circle of birth will spit You out well down the Line of Life before You can again wear a Human's raiment.”

  Lienna growled. Those weren't the words She needed to hear. She needed . . .

  An idea came to Her. Mistress Arisa. She needed Mistress. After all, every disaster that had occurred in the past few years had been when Lienna had sought to banish Mistress Arisa's presence from Her mind. What if it had been a colossal mistake to do so? What if Mistress Arisa had been the reason for all of Lienna's success? Her victories? Her power?

  “Mistress?” Lienna ventured.

  “What is it Child?” Mistress Arisa asked.

  Lienna shivered in relief. Mistress hadn't abandoned Her. “I seek Your wisdom. Two Elementals challenge Our might. How should I destroy them?”

  Mistress Arisa laughed in scorn. “I have no advice to give. Your feeble mind couldn't grasp what is required for victory.”

  Lienna gaped. There had to be something Mistress Arisa could tell Her. “This can't be the end. I am Your chosen vessel, the one who will usher a new age to Your lovely world. Surely You have some words to aid Me in My hour of need.”

  Mistress Arisa didn't respond.

  “Your ending is coming,” Mother said. “You know it. I warned You. With fire and vengeance You murdered Your way across the world, and with fire and vengeance, You will be cast out from the world.”

  Lienna had to put aside further conversation. While She had been busy trying to understand the disaster that had occurred in the skies above Ashoka, while She had been talking to Mother and begging advice from Mistress Arisa, the two new Elementals had chased Her down and overtaken Her.

  Their swords were ready, and Lienna was forced to halt Her flight and coalesce into the shape of a woman once more. She prepared Her staff and distantly noted a nearby convoy of ships down below on the Sickle Sea. All of them had the protective shell of an Oasis, and Lienna made a mental note to destroy those ships after She defeated these two Elementals coming for Her.

  After that, there was no more time for future plans.

  The male Elemental attacked first. He rolled below Lienna's thrust at his head and came up on the other side of Her. She had already set Her staff to block the strike She knew was coming at Her knees. The woman attacked with a horizontal slash at Lienna's midsection. A twirl of the staff blocked that blow as well. Lienna rose higher, gaining separation from the two before they could hem Her in.

  A Fireball burned Her way. She batted it aside with Her staff. It smashed into the sea in an explosion of boiling water and thunder. She ducked a Spear. The man pressed Her. He launched a series of strikes that Lienna calmly parried, including a final overhand swing. Her return front kick met empty space as the man stepped out of range. From Lienna's right, the woman feinted. It was a distraction. Lienna didn't bother with it. It would be the man . . . She mentally smiled. He came just as expected, from Her left. She blocked his downward slash at Her knees and stepped back. The woman's thrust at Lienna's shoulder didn't connect.

  Lienna laughed. She had always loved sparring. It was a game of position, movement, and moment. There was no time or space needed for distracting thought.

  Again came the woman from Lienna's right. Again it was a distraction. Lienna mentally sighed at the repetitive attack. Her opponents should have come up with something more original. She prepared for the man who would come from Her left. Her staff twirled into place, but the man wasn't there.

  Tremendous pain erupted from Lienna's back. The man had shifted underneath and behind Her. He'd stabbed Her in the back! His sword extended all the way through Her chest.

  Somehow, Lienna managed to pull Herself free of the man's weapon. Pain blotted out Her senses. It felt like She was being torn asunder. She sobbed from the agony. Another blow, this time from the woman, nearly struck off Her arm. Lienna screamed. She had to do something. She would die if She didn't.

  One arm hung limp, and Lienna tried to clip the woman in the head with Her staff as She spun about to face the man. But both had already moved beyond the range of Her staff.

  “You will die today,” the woman vowed in a chilling voice. “For all the evil You have done to Humanity, death is Your just reward.”

  Lienna shuddered. The pain in her back. It made it difficult to focus, but of one thing She was certain. She needed to retreat. She needed time and distance to Heal from the tremendous wounds She had received.

  Lienna threw a series of Fireballs at the ships down below. If these two loved Humanity so much, let them save those She had just condemned to death.

  As the other two Elementals shouted in outrage, Lienna raced away to safety.

  A cry from high above startled Bree, and her gaze flew to the sky. What she saw caused her mouth to go dry with fear. Suwraith. There could be no mistaking that stormcloud figure. The Queen had come back. It meant that Ashoka had died. It meant that Bree's home was no more. Everyone she knew was dead, and the Sorrow Bringer had returned to destroy those who had escaped the city's demise.

  “Mercy,” she whispered.

  Farn cursed their luck. “Only two days, and we'd have been safe,” he said.

  Bree exhaled heavily at the karmic disappointment. Two days might as well have been two years. The two hundred or so ships of the Maharajs extended for miles in every direction, and Bree couldn't help but feel bitter about the days of calm water that had slowed their travel. If not for that, they would have already arrived in Defiance.

  She turned away from the swirling vortex and mass of wild lightning that was Suwraith and faced west instead. She wanted to see the sun one last time before she died.

  There it stood, bright in the late afternoon sky, but it would soon set. It would be both a literal and figurative setting as the last of Ashoka's hopes would set today as well. The new Caste, the Maharajs, was doomed. They would die out here, far away from home and hearth, unknown and unremembered beneath the waves of the Sickle Sea.

  Bree returned her gaze to the Sorrow Bringer. How would Suwraith come at them this time? And would they have any chance of thwarting Her? Bree doubted it. This time she knew that the Queen would annihilate them. This time, there would be no miraculous diversion to distract Her attention.

  “What's that?” Farn asked, breaking Bree out of her morose musing. He pointed to two bright blurs that blazed like shoot
ing stars as they streaked in from the west.

  Laya held a spyglass to her eyes. “It looks like a man and a woman,” she said. “But they're moving too fast for me to focus on them.”

  Farn held a spyglass to his eyes as well. “It does look like a man and a woman,” he agreed, sounding baffled.

  Bree no longer needed Farn's confirmation. By now, the streaks—whatever they were—were visible even without a spyglass, and they did have the vague appearance of a blue-hued man and a green-colored woman. What were they? Were they new servants of the Sorrow Bringer? And were those swords they held in their hands?

  “Look,” Laya cried out, pointing to the Queen.

  Suwraith's cloud-like form had slowly gathered upon itself and taken on the shape of a bruise-purple woman. A staff slowly extruded from Her hands, and She cried out in defiance.

  The man and woman raced straight at Her. That first clash of swords and staff landed with the force of a mountain falling. The sound flattened the air, compressing it and pushing the Ashokan ships deeper into the water. Waves rose and fell in mad abandon.

  Bree stared upward with mouth agape. Chills raced up her spine. Rukh had once fought the Sorrow Bringer, and that had been as sublime a sight as she had ever dreamt of seeing, but this . . . this was something else entirely. This was magnificence. The two who battled the Sorrow Bringer were smaller than the Queen, and they likely didn't have Her fearsome power, but they had enough. They fought Her, stood Her off, defied Her will. And She seemed afraid of them.

  “What are they?” Laya asked in a voice full of awe.

  Bree didn't know, but as the battle progressed, small details became apparent to her. She recognized the sword forms one of them used. It was pure Ashokan, from Caste Kumma and House Shektan. Bree gasped. There was only one man who moved with the fluid grace as the being who battled up above. There was only man who fought with such superlative skill. And there could only be one woman who would fight alongside him.