Lightning Strikes Twice (Unweaving Chronicles Book 2)

by Sarah K. L. Wilson

  “Why a better life, Kjexx?” I asked. “What is wrong with this one?”

  “When our ancestors crashed here they lost all the technology they came with. All, but the most rudimentary of it — the ship, the panels that power it, some weapons. Every generation we lose more and more. We have not the knowledge or skill to replicate it, and all contact was lost with the world that birthed us. I believe that they hoped someone would come for them, but then no one did. As the months grew to years, and the years to decades, they finally embraced the magic of this world, but their hearts were always hoping for rescue. We were not made for this frozen world. Ka’ta’trien prophesied the coming of the Windbearer. The coming of a rescuer.”

  “And what made you believe this Ka’ta’trien?” Rusk asked. One hand was still pressed against Graxx. They looked like twin predators, with bright, piercing eyes and hawkish noses.

  “Her other prophesy came true. The cataclysm. The disaster that ended the magical world.”

  Ah. Now this was what I needed to know about. Whatever had gutted Ra’shara here had the potential to destroy me, too.

  “What…” I began.

  “Do you want to listen to stories all day, or help me prepare to ride?” Kjexx asked.

  “Can’t we do both?” I crossed my arms over my chest.

  Kjexx waggled his eyebrows at me. Worshipful he might be, but he also found my defiance humorous. I blushed. In another life, I would have found his attention an attractive prospect. What would it be like to dance with someone as unpredictable as Kjexx? To kiss his angular face and dented chin? But no, I loved Rusk. He had been there with me, believed in me, when no one else had.

  “You two start filling the side-panniers with the supplies stacked against the wall and I’ll keep talking,” Kjexx said, throwing a harness over the last Saur.

  “I don’t like that you use them as pack beasts,” Rusk said, as we gathered the supplies together. “They are as intelligent as you or I.”

  Kjexx laughed. “Clearly not, or it would be me in a harness!”

  Rusk snorted, nostrils flaring, but I put a hand on his arm and shook my head where Kjexx couldn’t see. Right now, we needed Kjexx and the Saurs — or should I be thinking of them as Eaglekin? They were our best bet to get to the heart of the Veen Empire where our answer would be.

  “What happened when the cataclysm struck?” I asked, turning the conversation.

  “Anyone connected to the magical world died. Suddenly, and for no apparent reason. Sometimes others are born that can still tap it. When they find their way there they don’t survive for long.”

  I bit my lip, glad that Kjexx couldn’t see me from behind the Eaglekin. He was done harnessing them.

  “What is the name of the thing that floats above your head? The symbol?”

  “My ko? It is the name of my spirit. It proclaims the heart of who I am. Look, you are starting to sprout one, although it is faint.”

  I glanced at Rusk. Sure enough, faint outlines of a sigil flickered above his head.

  “Where do they come from?” My voice was tinged with awe.

  Kjexx shrugged. “Where does your soul come from?”

  “It would make sneaking up on someone difficult.”

  He laughed. “If you meditate you can make it disappear. I assumed that was what you were both doing earlier. I didn’t know that people could be real without a ko.”

  What would he think of the people of Everturn? That we were soulless? And why were Rusk and I getting these strange symbols? I stared hard at Rusk’s ko. It made me think of everything that made a bird a bird, although it wasn’t shaped like one. I saw his face screw up and the ko disappeared. Was he practicing meditation to make it invisible?

  “Will you finish loading the Saurs?” Kjexx asked. “I’ll be back with my men shortly. Astrex wants to give us a proper send off.”

  “Certainly,” Rusk called, but as Kjexx’s footsteps faded away and his ko disappeared from view, Rusk took my upper arms in his strong grip and gently leaned down to look in my eyes. “It won’t happen to you, Tylira. We won’t let it. Too much depends on you.”

  I chewed harder at my lip, tasting blood. I already had one world to save. Now another people thought I would save them, too. This world was already changing us, and something here was killing people like me.

  “Catane is still alive,” Rusk continued. “Whatever killed Kjexx’s ancestors hasn’t hurt him. And don’t worry, I’ll be right here beside you the whole time.”

  He jangled the chain that hung between our wrists and then took my face gently in his hands and kissed me. He tasted of hope and spices. I wanted more than just a kiss. I wanted him to make everything better. But how was that any more fair than what Kjexx and his people wanted from me?

  “This world is changing us.”

  He smiled. “I like your ko. It looks like you — fearless.”

  “Rusk, do you think you would have fallen in love with me if you hadn’t been chained to me?”

  “Silly question, Tylira,” he said softly, kissing me again and folding me into his arms. “You know I don’t answer those.”

  His warmth was addictive. I nestled in closer.

  “But why me?” I pressed. “Why not someone else?”

  “Like who?” He kissed me gently behind the ear, sending shivers through my core. He certainly felt like a man who loved me. “Kjexx? I’ll admit he’s just my type. Crazy.”

  I punched him lightly in the ribs. I wasn’t crazy!

  “I’m not the only woman in this world — or ours for that matter. What if you meet someone else? Someone who fits you better?” After all, if I could see in Kjexx someone who probably was a more natural fit for me, what if Rusk met someone and realized that she fit him better?

  He pulled back, his face serious now. “What are you saying?”

  “That I don’t know why you picked me. I wish I knew. It would make it all feel real.”

  “It’s not real to you?” He tilted his head to one side, holding up the chain. “You’re only at my side because of this?”

  I let out a sound of frustration. “Why are you turning this back on me?”

  But shouldn’t he be turning it back on me? After all, of the two of us I was the more unfaithful the least grounded, the most likely to wonder what another path might have been like.

  “I didn’t choose you because I had to. And I didn’t choose you because you had some inherent quality that I needed or wanted. If I did, then you could lose my love as soon as you failed in that one thing. I chose you simply because I did. And I still choose you. Don’t put your faith that I’ll keep loving you in some part of who you are. Put that faith in me.”

  Of course, he was steady and faithful. I shouldn’t have opened my mouth. It only highlighted my own weaknesses.

  “I put my faith in you, Rusk Hawkwing.”

  He smiled and kissed me again.

  “If you want to see the Capitol, then we’ll need to finish loading these supplies.”

  We set back to work, distributing the supplies evenly among the Eaglekin.

  “The one thing I’m still wondering about,” I said as we worked side by side, “Is why the Black Talon is willing to let me out of their sight if they really believe that I’m this Windbearer they’ve been waiting for.”

  We heaved the last parcel into place, carefully tying it into the harness. The Eaglekin scrambled to the side, irritated, but Rusk laid a hand on his feathered flank and he calmed.

  “They aren’t letting you out of their sight. They’re sending Kjexx with us as far as the Empire.”

  “And that’s enough for them? They are more trusting than the High Tazmin would be.”

  “I’m not leaving you at the border to the Empire,” Kjexx said, stepping into view from behind Graxx. He leaned against the great Eaglekin casually. “I’ve been tasked to stay with you until the end.”

  “Until your people are saved?” I asked. The very thought of it still made me nervous. Ex
actly how was I supposed to lead them to this better future?

  “And if she fails?” Rusk asked.

  “Then it will be my task to spill her blood on the snow.”

  Chapter Eleven: Leavings

  WHATEVER RUSK SCREAMED WAS either a war cry or a curse in a language I didn’t know, but I was quick enough to throw myself in front of him before he finished his lunge towards Kjexx.

  “Don’t bother, War Leader. If I fall there are dozens who would step up in my place. We hold our lives lightly, a gift given for a short time.” Kjexx grabbed the long reigns of the Saurs, tsking to them and then called to us over his shoulder. “Coming? Astrex is about to begin the Leave-taking and if we are late she won’t let us leave this morning at all.”

  We walked behind the trail of Saurs, our feet skidding through the slick snow.

  “I don’t know why you stopped me,” Rusk said.

  I frowned, grasping his hand in mine and pulling him forward. “Right now, there’s nothing we can do about it. Trust me, when he really starts trying to spill my blood on the snow I’ll let you have at him.”

  “Let me? I think I’m still master of my own choices.”

  I rolled my eyes. Was his sense of manhood so easily insulted? “Yes, of course. Master of your fate. I’m not saying otherwise.”

  “I didn’t claim to be master of my fate,” he said. He sounded like he meant to grumble no matter what I said. “Only master of my choices. My bad choices are what led me this far.”

  I stopped in the snow to glare at him. Was he suggesting that he had ended up with me and in this place because of his bad choices?

  “That’s not what I meant, Tylira!”

  I clenched my jaw and plowed through the snow refusing to look at him. What was his problem? One minute he’d fight to defend me, the next he suggested that having me in his life was nothing but the result of bad choices!

  I tramped through the snow in the great, three-pronged tracks of the Saurs. Our tether tugged on my wrist any time I felt l was picking up any speed and I had to slow for Rusk. By the time we reached Kjexx, I was frustrated and muttering to myself. Maybe we really were a bad match. Maybe I shouldn’t have told him I loved him. Maybe it had all just happened because he’d been captured and vulnerable and we’d needed each other. Maybe he didn’t really care about me.

  Kjexx flashed me a grin while he set the Saurs on a picket. His short-cropped hair waved in the wind like a fan of gold. It looked natural against the golds and pinks of the dawn on the snow.

  “Come on,” he said, his grin infectious. I fell in beside him, letting Rusk walk behind me. He snorted at Kjexx, but kept a stony silence otherwise.

  Ahead of us, in a wide ring, Kjexx’s men stood fanned out within the ring of broken statuary. What had this place been long ago? To one side the Black Talon lay in her snow-encrusted tomb, and to the other a great palace with a domed roof stood in ruins. The dome was caved in like a skull struck by a great hammer, and jagged rents in the walls, like tooth marks, were stained with black. Twenty pock-marked steps led up to the dead palace and at the top of them was a long pallet made up with wolf furs. I knew without needing to look at the icy profile, that it was Axrun. Today ten of Kjexx’s men would bear him home for burial. I’d overheard it discussed last night when they thought I slept.

  In front of the gathered people, Astrex stood with a silver pitcher in her hands. Its body was opaque and murky with condensation in the cold of morning. Mist clung to the ground in ephemeral drifts, just over the surface of the crusted snow, but none of these warriors seemed to care.

  “What do your people call yourselves, Kjexx?” I asked.

  “Landers. We don’t know why, so don’t ask. It’s just a name, and a very old one.”

  “And why do these others ride out before the ceremony?” I gestured to a column of people that were easily twice the number of Kjexx’s troops. They rode in a long curving line to the southwest, in the direction of the sun.

  Kjexx’s lips thinned and a tiny muscle in the side of his face twitched. “They go to return to the battle we left. It should be done by now, but they will ride home with our people.”

  “Why were you fighting yesterday?”

  “We were fighting in protest of the taking of Midrell. My sister.”

  “Taking?”

  “Catane takes any from us who he finds in the Shadowlands. The lands of magic.”

  Ra’shara. I swallowed. Should I be worried about An’alepp?

  “He finds them,” Kjexx said, “And steals them away. She would die anyways, in a few years. All those who enter the Shadowlands do, but he can’t just take her before her time. We fought to protest — but we knew we would not win. It was a draw yesterday and we were already retreating when I brought you here.”

  “Then these men go to help the wounded and tired?”

  Rusk was walking closer to our backs. Did the story remind him of his own? Fated to wage a useless war against a stronger foe?

  “No.” Kjexx’s voice was harsh. His light eyes pierced my own. “They go because they have no faith. They do not believe you are the Windbearer of prophesy — just a waste of our time. They leave before the blessing in protest.”

  “So not all of you believe that nonsense,” Rusk said.

  “We of the Black Talon believe it firmly.”

  Kjexx led us to the end of the crescent and we formed up in the line with the rest. He tugged my fur hood off roughly, saying “Show your respect.”

  I shivered in the renewed cold, as Rusk hurried to remove his own hood.

  “Who are the Black Talon?” he asked.

  “Those of us who are faithful to the vision of our ancestors. We will not lose faith. We will stand fast.”

  It was just like the catechism they had quoted in the ship earlier.

  “You have my condolences on the death of your father,” I said, looking towards Axrun’s shrouded form.

  Kjexx shook his head. “We hold our lives lightly. He has gone on to truer things.”

  I shivered. Hopefully Kjexx didn’t get crazy ideas like that in his mind about me.

  Astrex spoke then, and everyone else fell silent in the howling of the wind.

  “Go from us with courage and return with honor. Let no good thing go undone. Faithfulness always from our hearts to your hands.”

  The crowd responded in their harsh language.

  Astrex strode to the end of the line where Kjexx stood. He ducked his head slightly and she lifted the silver pitcher, pouring a small splash on his head.

  “Faithfulness always,” she said.

  Oh, Sweet Penspray, no! What was with these people and the cold? Were none of them civilized? I gritted my teeth and ducked my own head, managing not to shriek as the searing cold hit my scalp and ran down my neck.

  “Faithfulness always.”

  I shook like a dog, completely uncontrollably, but some of the water shook off. I stopped shaking in time to watch Rusk being baptized into this frozen insanity. He looked like a king being anointed for the throne. He straightened gracefully after the pouring and flashed me a worried look. I was too busy trying to get my fox fur hood back up to feel much of anything except the cold.

  Astrex worked her way down the line, leaving person after person glittering with freezing water and a cold reminder.

  “Are all your ceremonies so brief?” Rusk asked Kjexx.

  “Most.”

  “Finally, something I like about you.”

  As Astrex spoke the last words, Kjexx whistled sharply so that it carried across the broken ring of statues, echoing off the headless, handless effigies and calling all to action.

  “You two ride with me today,” he said, whistling to Graxx, who stooped low so we could climb into the foot straps and small saddles that ran along his back between the panniers. Kjexx sat between his front shoulders, I sat immediately behind him, and Rusk was behind me. On either side, the paniers were stacked with supplies and weapons, and the smouldering coal
pots from the night before, newly hot. I hadn’t noticed those being loaded, but now I melted into their warmth. At least something around here was warm. It wasn’t just the weather that threatened to chill me to the bone.

  We rode for an hour before Kjexx spoke again and one long stretch of snowy fields surrounded by trees drifted into another which blended in turn into yet another.

  “I think we should work out what we’re going to say to my people as we get closer to the Empire,” Kjexx said.

  The Eaglekin, undaunted by the snow, ate up the terrain with their long, flowing strides. I thought that Rusk’s unbroken silence was because he was talking to them — or I hoped it was. I was still bristling at the thought that he might consider me a bad choice, despite the sweet words he’d said only moments before that. After all, people often let their guard down when they didn’t mean to and then their true feelings slip out.

  The Eaglekin rode in a single-file line and with the wind of their passing it was impossible to hear what was said from one to the next. Even so, I looked around self-consciously. Secrets were not something I was good at keeping.

  “You haven’t told them that we are riding to find the scintellex?” I asked

  “Of course not! I trust them completely, but the fewer who know our secret the better.” Kjexx shifted in his straps.

  “What is the scintellex, exactly?”

  “A legendary artifact.”

  “Something that came here on the Black Talon?”

  “We aren’t sure. It has writing all around it that we can’t read, and it can be … adjusted … to change things.”

  “To change what?”

  “Everything.” He cleared his throat. “This isn’t a good time to talk about this.”

  “Do they know our language?” I asked, glancing again at his people. “Astrex spoke it in the ceremony, but they responded in their own.”

  “They understand Commands but none except leaders may speak in Command among the Landers.”

  “So, I won’t be able to speak to them unless you speak for me?”