Daughter of Hell

by Thomas Green

  Zakuma grabbed a rope, the same one Luna used last night and tied it to the railing before leaping down.

  Daniel leaned down to Luna’s ear. “He didn’t bother removing his robes. He’s not a priest, is he?”

  His warm breath left an electrifying sensation on her skin, making her relax into his hold. “He is now, but I’ve got a suspicion of him being someone different in the past.”

  Nancy leaned to her other side. “Who was he, then?”

  Barely stopping herself from purring, Luna said, “I don’t know for sure, but I think he was one of the top warriors of my father’s former army.”

  Nancy smiled. “Sounds like you are walking in his footsteps.”

  The strange mixture of happiness, nostalgia, and disappointment clashed within Luna. She always wanted to walk her own path, not to chase her father’s shadow. But she liked it in the navy. More than any other place she had ever been in. The whirlwind of emotions blasted through her body, not offering anything to reply.

  Zakuma soon climbed back to the deck, holding what looked like a dead, sea serpent half-covered in steel. He dropped it and went to dress while the others gathered around the thing.

  Lieutenant Redeye motioned to Bull. “Inform the Admiral.” As the chief left, he gave Luna an appreciating stare. “Good work.”

  Luna smiled, biting her inner cheek not to show tears. She had no words for how happy the two words made her.

  The admiral, Elias la Grace, entered the deck beneath a storm of salutes. He had a well-trimmed beard, piercing blue eyes, wore an undecorated coat and uniform, but also a large tricorne embellished by feathers and medals. Luna straightened her back to perform the best salute she managed, nearly collapsing from the effort.

  Elias nodded and turned to the dead serpent, his eyes flashing a moment of sadness. The thing they found was a strange blend of a beast and a steel machine. He ducked above it and traced arcane symbols onto the carcass, examining it with his aether. After long minutes of awkward silence, he rose. “This must have caught onto us during the wyrm’s attack. If my estimate is correct, it was a living serpent that carried a contraption upon its back. I am not sure what its purpose was though.”

  Luna cleared her throat. “It released a specific sound in a fixed pattern, sir. That’s how I noticed it.”

  He nodded. “It is probably a detection mechanism then. We have no hope to catch whatever was receiving the signal, but we must ensure none of these are caught onto the other ships. Lieutenant, please go through the rest of our fleet.”

  Lieutenant Redeye grunted out the acknowledgment. Admiral la Grace threw them all a broad smile. When his eyes rested on Luna, he said, “good work.”

  7

  Zerae

  While sitting in her office, Zerae drew in from her cigar. She put the scouting report she had finished reading onto a large stack of papers and grabbed another one from a similar-looking pile. She skimmed through the text, straightened her back and smiled. “Patricia! Send word to Astril and Leena. Tell them to meet me at the eastern platform in an hour.”

  “Yes, War Leader,” Patricia shouted back from the other side of the closed door and soon, Zerae heard her running off.

  Having the scouts write reports may have made her the least popular commander in the history of Sil Haen, but this moment alone made it worth the trouble. An hour later, she rose from her chair, grabbed her executioner sword and headed to the platform.

  She found the meeting point, which was but a foundation of a collapsed tower, and sat on a rock by the side. She wondered what happened to this city before the Sil Haen first appeared to find it empty. Despite her efforts to find more, she knew little else than that this was once a fortress during the times of the Old Kingdom. What disaster befell this place to turn it into the ruin it was now. The symbol etched onto the ruin of the former gate, a lone rose, was the crest of the house Laen’Ash, of the royal bloodline that ruled the world for over three thousand years. But she never met anyone who knew more.

  Leena arrived on time, looking paler than a corpse and a lot less healthy. Trailed by Elizabeth, Astril came after another hour.

  Zerae glared at her. “You are late!”

  Astril smiled. “I needed to get ready.”

  “And stop at Sonja, Tanja, Oria, and Helen on the way here,” Elizabeth added.

  Zerae pierced Astril with a glare. “Can’t you go half a day without whoring?”

  “Be nicer to me and I might,” she said, “plus, we will be gone for a few days, so I had to make up for it.”

  Zerae slapped her own face. “Let’s move.” She whistled while Astril and Leena did the same.

  Their mounts soon arrived, swooping onto the platform, the black-red bird of Zerae, lizard-eagle for Astril and a giant, gray wyvern of Leena.

  Astril turned to Elizabeth. “Alright. I will be back in a few days, so be a good kid and do nothing I would do until I return.”

  “What do you mean? I’m coming with you!”

  Zerae drew in a deep breath. “No, you are not.”

  Astril smiled at her. “Calm down. I’ve got this.” She frowned at Elizabeth and waved her off with her hand. “Annoying kids need to go to school, so shoo.”

  Elizabeth turned red. “I’m not annoying! You are! And I’m not a kid anymore either! And are you ditching me?”

  Astril’s face became sour. “You know, one day, you will meet a girl. You will like her. She will like you. Everything will be nice, sweet, rosy, and then you will make her really, really unhappy!” She spun on her heel and walked to her mount.

  Elizabeth stared at her, mouth gaping.

  Zerae smiled to herself, keeping a stern face when peering down at Elizabeth. Astril was more educative than she had expected. The further away the girl stayed from the three of them, the better for her.

  Astril leapt on Tlikk and motioned it off the platform. Zerae and Leena followed, leaving the town behind them while flying in their usual formation, where Zerae made the center while Astril and Leena flew as her wings.

  Astril looked around with a satisfied smile. “It’s been a while since we have done things together, so I hope we are going somewhere fun.”

  ***

  As they stood at the mountainside, deep within Taeba Buffs, Astril kicked a small rock, sending it into the valley below. “Boring. Boooring! Boooriiing!”

  Zerae sneered. “Shut the fuck up, Astril!”

  She turned to her, eyes burning. “There is nothing in here. We have spent days going through these mountains. Days! Hey! Look! We have finally found something! It’s a rock! Wooow! That changes everything… not!”

  “Would you stop having the patience of a four-year-old?” Zerae shouted as she gazed at the black basalt peaks surrounding them. Unlike her, they were serene, endless, and peaceful, save for the wheezing wind. Zerae took a deep breath to calm down. “It’s supposed to be somewhere around here.”

  “Is it? Because you said the same thing at the previous mountain as well! I’m hungry! I’m thirsty! My back hurts! There is nothing here! Let’s go raid a village or something! I want chocolate!”

  Zerae shook her head, doing her best not to explode. A quick glance on Leena confirmed she had her eyes rolled over, completely out of reality. “By the reports, there have been multiple cave-ins in this area in the past year, suggesting there is an entrance to the underground caverns somewhere nearby.”

  Astril stomped the ground. “Oh look! A rock! This one has a small white spot on it! Woohoo! Now that’s something… not!”

  “Shut up!”

  “There is nothing here! Just like there wasn’t anything around the mountain we checked yesterday, the one from two days ago or the one from the day fucking one! I. Am. Bored!” Astril kicked the boulder in front of her, making it fall off the cliff.

  A loud boom followed by the sounds of more falling rocks echoed from below.

  Astril paused. “That didn’t sound like nothing.” She went to the ledge to look down, seeing
the rockslide revealed a cavern entrance. “There is a hole in the mountain.”

  Zerae walked to her side, forcing herself not to grin. “There’s a cave entrance. Fasten a rope, for we are descending there. I go first and—”

  “Weee!” Astril shouted as she slid down the mountainside.

  Zerae looked at Leena, who stared at the horizon, absentminded. She wondered why her two most trusted companions were a Limbo addict and a psychopath. Probably because they were too busy being weird to lie to her. Or because nobody was better in bed than Astril and Leena came as a part of the package. Nah, it was because Astril and Leena, the two youngest purebloods, were the strongest fighters at her disposal. Why walk around with three hundred warriors while she could bring the two of them? She kicked Leena in the shin to wake her up.

  Leena jumped in her skin and her eyes refocused. They descended the cliff, entering the cavern where Astril already awaited them. Before them loomed a long corridor.

  As they walked, Zerae pulled a thin cigar to grab it with her lips. Without a need for a word, Astril put a finger in front of Zerae’s face, and yellow flame burst from its tip, letting Zerae light the cigar. She enjoyed a long drag before she spoke. “By my calculations, there is a cavern city between us and the Chimera Chasm. Leena, I need you to dream-walk to the city’s ruler and give him a vision of a savior arriving at his palace, one that looks like an obscure version of me.”

  Leena nodded, withdrew a purple mold from her pocket and swallowed it, collapsing within an instant. Astril caught her mid-fall.

  Zerae smiled. “Astril, kill nothing unless I tell you to.”

  She clicked her tongue. “Where’s the fun in that?”

  Zerae rolled her eyes. “This is important.”

  “Not as important as you being nicer to me, but alright, I won’t fuck this up.”

  Zerae wished her words didn’t calm her down the way they did. They descended through the tunnel with Astril carrying Leena over her shoulder. A humongous cavern opened before them within four hours of gradual descent, covered by fields of luminous fungi with a colorful city standing by the left wall. They passed the cavern through the opposite side, making sure they weren’t seen.

  A few more hours of walking later, they stood beneath a gaping chasm through which they could see the evening sky. By the sides of the caverns swarmed dozens of chimeras. They had heads of lions, wings of mosquitoes, arms and legs of lizards, and tails of scorpions.

  Zerae had no idea what nightmare of an experiment created these things, but from the scouting reports of the area around the chasm, she knew they flew out to hunt at night. Zerae and her company sat down by the side, waiting.

  After an excruciatingly dull wait, during which Leena woke up, the chimeras flew out into the darkness above in a swarm of wings and claws, leaving the walls of the abyss empty save for their nests.

  Zerae grabbed a dozen cigars from within her coat, distributing them to Astril and Leena. “I need you to climb up the wall and smash whatever eggs and younglings you find while blowing around smoke from my cigars. Leena goes from the top, both sides, while Astril starts from the bottom. Try not to get too dirty. Questions?”

  Astril’s face turned into a vicious smile as she put the rolled tobacco leaves to her lips. She made a fire spring out of her finger to light a cigar for each of them.

  They each took a drag, and Zerae withdrew into the cave. Astril pivoted toward the far wall and soulstepped to the nearest nest, smashing the eggs while exhaling the smoke over them.

  Leena focused and disappeared. Zerae knew she soulstepped beyond where she could see, envy flashing through her. These were the moments she wished she didn’t have the darksteel collar. Maybe she could have learned to soulstep as well. While the skill was unique to purebloods, which she was not, perhaps she could have figured out how to do it. The skin beneath the shackle gripping her neck itched as she thought of it. But she couldn’t live without the collar, not after what she had done. The death of her sister haunted her to this day. The death her cursed flame caused. She caused. Zerae took a drag and went to scrape moss from the nearby walls. She wished there was a way to contain her flame without stopping her from extending aether from her body. There wasn’t. And so she could only soulstep to where she placed a mark by touch.

  Whatever of the chimeras were left around the nests died by Astril’s blades or Leena’s staff, filling the floor under the chasm with corpses. Two hours later, Leena’s voice echoed from above. “I’m done up here.”

  Astril shouted from above. “Me too. What do we do next?”

  I was so useful at this. Zerae sighed, swallowing her disappointment. “Climb down!”

  They met down in the cavern. She inspected them and motioned them to the moss she prepared. “Rub this over where you have the creature’s blood or the egg yolk.”

  Astril and Leena smiled and did as she bid.

  Once they were done, Zerae handed each of them six more cigars. “Now, we go to the town.”

  They walked straight toward the walls of the city, smoking one cigar after another as they did. The steel gate shut close the moment the guards noticed them approaching. Zerae shook her head.

  “Hold! Who are you?” echoed from the post above, and more men appeared atop the stone walls.

  Zerae forced her voice into a steady tone. “I am Zerae Hellwind, the War Leader of the Sil Haen and I am here to speak to the ruler of this city.”

  The awkward silence filled the air before anyone from the guards spoke. “The… what?”

  Zerae smiled. “The Sil Haen. We are a civilization from the surface.”

  A moment of shock paused the world. “How did you surfacers get here?”

  Not by being morons. Zerae sighed. “Look, we will not solve this at the gate, so could you inform whoever the ruler of this city is of our arrival? He wants to speak with us, trust me.”

  More guards filled the falls, all wielding readied crossbows.

  “Not the best start,” Astril whispered.

  Zerae leaned to her. “Play along, don’t screw up and I will give you a day inside this city once we are done.”

  “Three days.”

  Zerae’s brain knew this was a bad idea, but the rest of the body ached for Astril so much the mere thought filled her with warmth. She nodded, banishing the image of naked Astril from her mind. She would see to that later.

  Astril grinned, pursing her lips.

  A man with a decorated helmet appeared among the soldiers. “We will take you in, but you will need to drop all of your weapons and let us put shackles on you.”

  Zerae shook her head. “Listen, we are not utter idiots. There are three of us, so it’s not like we can conquer your city, but we also have things you people would want, so we are not letting you rob us. Our weapons will stay exactly where they are, for while we have come in peace, we will mirror any violence we receive.”

  A murmur traveled through the guards and a man without a helmet stepped to the edge of the wall by the gate. His hair was bright yellow, his armor black and his skin pale. “I am Jack Carlyle, Prince of the house Carlyle. Pray tell, why should we let you in, surfacers?”

  “We have something the ruler of this place will want.”

  “And what is that?”

  “That is for his ears only.” Zerae tried to hide how annoyed this made her. “And is this truly your city’s hospitality? Three women approach your gate, and you close it shut in front of their faces while threatening them with crossbows?”

  He smiled. “Not everyone within these walls is unaware of who the Sil Haen are. With that in mind, I see our precaution as justified.”

  That makes things so much easier. Zerae grinned. “With that in mind, someone within these walls should also realize what me standing here means in the case I have not lied about my name and position.”

  He paused for a moment. “Are you threatening me?”

  Zerae shrugged. “You must be great warriors if the sight of three women t
errifies your entire army.”

  Jack inhaled sharply and motioned his men to open the gate. With a loud clanging, the gate’s wings slid to sides while Jack descended to stand in its center with twenty guards surrounding him.

  Zerae donned the most charming smile in her repertoire and approached him. The way his eyes widened, breath sped up, and cheeks caught color as he saw her up close turned her smile into a natural one. She knew she was the most beautiful woman he had ever met and would ever meet and enjoyed every second.

  He stepped to them, measuring Zerae with an erratic gaze, his voice not steady. “While I apologize for the inconvenience, I still need to ask you to hand over your weapons. I will, however, swear on my name you shall not be imprisoned or come to any harm.”

  My hero. Zerae drew her executioner sword, flipped it and handed it over to him in a well-practiced, elegant move. Leena gave the guards her staff and four thin swords that were hidden within her robes while Astril passed over her falchions and a dagger from her boot. As Jack took the weapons from Astril, his gaze lingered on her face, flashing with a hint of fear.

  He knew her. Zerae bit her inner cheek to stop herself from laughing. They entered the city while throwing the half-burned cigars from their mouths to the sides of the road. The town itself was surprisingly pretty as bright paints covered everything they could. Wherever there was a useable spot, there was a paint of green, yellow, pink or blue over the cold stone out of which all was built.

  The people of the cavern city approved of the fashion, for while their faces were all the color of alabaster, they had their hair colored to brightness.

  Zerae made eye contact with Jack. “What’s with all these colors?”

  His face caught red, his voice stuttering. “Well… all is gray and dim in the caverns. If we don’t bring color to our lives, who will?”

  They reached the palace, which was carved into the side of the cavern and indistinguishable from the other buildings. The lord was a practical man, not a vain one. Shame. Paintings decorated the insides, displaying landscapes from above the ground, views almost none from the city had ever seen. Jack led them to his office, a simple room filled with papers and books on military strategy.