by K. L. Gee
Hakon regarded the boy. He was stout, and Hakon was grateful for his fortitude in this moment. He nodded, and the three of them walked away from the woman and into the forest. He looked around him. The forest was so open, with tall aspens just beginning to grow fresh green leaves. Red and pink light streamed through the thin forest. It was nothing like the thick and treacherous mountains he was used to.
“This attack will only escalate the war. There will be no hope of a treaty or peace offering with the Terra as fragmented as we are. I am beginning to think our tribe’s loyalty in me was unfounded…”
“Quiet, Hakon,” Skeet said, clearly resisting the urge to punch him. “Your destiny is clear, and don’t smear their deaths with your own doubt.”
“What destiny, Skeet? The secret Gage and our father kept from me? The obscure legend? Did they tell you something about it that I don’t know? It wasn’t to bring peace—vengeance is cried on both sides. The Alem will not let the Terra free, even if they raised their crown prince. I see that now.”
Tadi coughed. “Then enact vengeance. If you are one of us, then use your position among the Alem to fight for us. If they welcome you back, you will be in the best position to sabotage their rule in our favor.”
Skeet eyed Tadi and then grinned. “It’s a good idea, but you underestimate the inner conflict of my brother.” Skeet looked at Hakon. “You would never betray your own kin.”
“I killed them last night. All those soldiers…” Hakon muttered.
Skeet waved his hand and shrugged. “You are not brother to every man on earth, Hakon, despite your mixed heritage.” He leaned in close. “We have very little to go back to now. Let us move forward. You have to face your true role as heir to Atmen one day. You may as well do it in the middle of a war.”
Hakon saw a glimmer in Skeet’s eyes. Hakon agreed with him. He had to do something.
“And what should we do about the girl?” Hakon asked.
“Leave her,” Skeet said. “It’s not like she’ll see us going.”
“I liked her,” Tadi said.
“It won’t be your last crush, Tadi.” Skeet smirked. He put his hand on Hakon’s shoulder. “Your decision?”
They would go, and Hakon would let fate guide him to his purpose. “We will go to Atmen.”
Tadi smiled, and Skeet whooped. He began to tie his spear to his back. “I love a good adventure.”
“You are no longer sad?” Tadi asked. Skeet frowned momentarily, and then it disappeared into a smile.
“There is time for mourning, young cub. A warrior never forgets,” Skeet said as he finished the knot on his spear. “But we have a mission now. We have to get this lost air sucker to his rightful home so he can face his tyrant father and make friends with all the high–marked men who killed his Terra mother.” Skeet grinned.
Hakon wanted to punch Skeet hard. “Thanks, Skeet.”
“I don’t envy you, Brother,” Skeet said. Then he strutted back toward the falls calling, “I’ll fetch what little supplies remain.”
Tadi turned to Hakon, confused. “He…”
“Don’t misread Skeet, Tadi. He holds his anger and sorrow very close, just behind the shadow of humor.”
“And you hold yours behind solemnity,” Tadi noted. Then he turned toward the falls and left Hakon alone to ponder the future of their fates.
CHAPTER TWENTY
“Is she still following us?”
“Yes.”
Hakon sighed. Tadi had just returned from zipping to see if Kai, the Su girl they had met at the falls, was still following them. It had been a few days now, ever since they had cleaned up and packed their supplies, and still she persisted. Hakon couldn’t stop her. She didn’t deserve any harm—a blind Su didn’t appear a great threat. He only wondered how she managed to follow them when she was blind.
Tadi was grinning.
“What, Tadi?”
“Nothing,” he said, smile disappearing from his face.
Skeet leaned toward Hakon. “I think he has a crush.”
They continued to walk underneath the moon. They were following the stars due west, using the rudimentary knowledge of the plains they were taught in school by Gage. So far, they had encountered huge ravines and rivers, which proved great challenges to zip over or around. The Great Plains were hardly plains. They couldn’t zip the entire way, for it was a great deal like sprinting, and they could only go so far with the energy they had between the three of them for those bursts. Skeet hadn’t seen this landscape, so he was wary of vanishing too far. Besides, they wanted to save their energy for fighting.
Their ignorance of the land was slowing them down. Kai had said she was a traveler. Hakon wondered if the Su girl might be helpful after all.
“I have a theory,” Skeet said, interrupting Hakon’s thoughts. “I think it’s her horse that’s following us. The horse can see our tracks, especially when Tadi does the zipping. It can see the impressions he leaves in the earth with his feet.”
“Smart horse,” Tadi remarked.
“I wouldn’t know,” Hakon said. “There aren’t many horses in the Desolate Forest.”
Even if that were the case, how did she keep up with them when they zipped? They continued walking under the night sky. It was so strange for Hakon to be in the open like this. The only cloak was darkness. He felt exposed.
They were traveling on a road that appeared to lead due west. They had agreed to follow it with a plan to escape should they meet any night travelers. Hakon hoped it would lead to a village, and from there they could get a better sense of where they were headed.
Skeet noticed it first. As they approached what appeared to be a small farming village, Skeet held out his hand and stopped them.
“What are they doing?” he asked.
They moved in closer, pulling their weapons out. There was the distant sound of feet scurrying in the middle of the night—it sounded like disorganized marching. They moved along the edges of the houses. They heard a distant barked command.
Tadi looked back at Hakon. “Did I hear that correctly?”
Hakon held out his arm, and the others grabbed a hold. Hakon spotted his destination and then zipped them to a distant roof, then another. He aimed high, so they fell a few feet every time they landed. It was safer to land hard than lose a foot in a roof. As they approached the sounds, they saw torchlight. They leaned over the edge of the roof, and what they saw confirmed Tadi’s question.
“Speak and you die,” a soldier barked again.
There were hundreds of Terra slaves marching toward what appeared to be a large pit. It was hard to tell in the dim torchlight. Alem soldiers were holding them at sword point. They were bare–chested and wore capes. Most carried short swords and had bandaged wounds.
They heard an argument below them. A soldier with what looked to be a regular Alem man dressed in simple farmer’s attire.
“You can’t do this to us,” the farmer was saying.
“King’s orders.”
“Who will tend to the farms?”
“That’s none of my affair,” the soldier said. “Now back off, old man, before you say something hot enough to burn.”
The farmer cursed and stepped back into the darkness, where a group of villagers were gathered in their nightclothes. Some were crying.
“It’s an execution,” Skeet muttered.
“Retribution,” Tadi whispered. The king was taking the life of these slaves for the lives of the soldiers at the border camp.
Hakon calculated their odds. Some of these soldiers could probably zip or vanish. Then he noticed the soldiers had tattoos on their foreheads. Like his but different. Were they royalty? Curious, he glanced at the villagers and saw they also had marks on their foreheads. He didn’t want to hurt the villagers, but he certainly didn’t want to return the slaves to their power. There was probably a lord among them who was the enforcer.
“Hakon? What do we do?”
“We free them, of course.” Hakon wo
uld think about what to do with the villagers afterward. First he had to prevent this massacre. “Tadi, see what their plan is with that hole. Skeet, go left and I’ll take right. Kill the soldiers first; then we’ll decide what to do about the village slave masters.”
Tadi and Skeet nodded. The soldiers were shoving the first group of slaves toward the black pit. The three stood up on the roof, shouted a hunting cry, and leapt into the torchlight.
***
Here’s my chance, Kai thought as she sat waiting on the other side of the darkness, not far from where Hakon crouched with Skeet and Tadi. Her horse, Maji, had circled around the village, hoping to cut off the group when they last checked on her, but she had paused when she heard the innumerable group of slaves marching. Now Maji was safely on the outskirts of the village with instructions. Kai heard Hakon’s whispered instructions, and then the three of them jumped from the roof.
Tadi would be the easiest. She would target him first.
She moved left toward the hole, where soldiers were already starting to push the slaves over the edge into the abyss. The slaves had probably been made to dig their own grave. First came the sounds of screams as slaves fell into the pit. It was followed immediately by a piercing roar. Kai broke into a run and leaped into the pit. Three cries greeted her—two beasts and a boy.
“Lanikai?” Tadi shouted.
“Kill the soldier up top. I’ll take care of the beasts,” she ordered.
Tadi didn’t mention she was blind or that she had never said she could fight, but the absence of his breathing meant he was gone. Kai reached behind her and slid the twin daggers out of their knots on her back. She heard moaning behind her—a man was being eaten alive.
“Hey!” she shouted. The satisfying sound of padded feet hitting soft dirt reached her ears before the animal did. She heard a deep growl—a wildcat. She bent low and swung up at the right moment—slicing both her daggers at the underbelly of the leaping wildcat. A heavy corpse and the hot warmth of organs spilled onto her. She rolled it off and checked the face and gait of the beast with her hands.
“Starved mountain lion,” she muttered. “Hungry and angry, but weak.” Her criticism was interrupted by another howl to her left, and she was struck suddenly, sharp teeth gripping her left arm. She swung the dagger in her right hand, lodging the blade in the beast’s head. She struggled to loosen the tightened jaw enclosing her arm. She recognized the bite as a wolf’s.
She loosened its jaw enough to rip her arm free. She cursed loudly, and then listened for sounds of surviving slaves. The pit suddenly grew hot.
Someone had lit a fire in the pit. And it was meant to be big. Kai dismissed the idea of saving any more slaves in the pit, and, putting the daggers in her mouth, she began to climb by thrusting her fists into the walls of the pit. She heard Tadi’s familiar grunts above her—the sound of a boy fighting. From the sound of it, he was doing well but still struggling. The slaves were still being pushed en mass into the now fiery pit.
For once, Kai cursed her lack of eyesight. With it, she could at least count the guards.
“There’s a zipper, Lanikai!” she heard Tadi shout to her left when she reached the top. That explained the soldiers’ ability to still push slaves into the pit. Kai ran toward Tadi, pulling the boy to her back. She put both daggers in her right hand.
“Save your breath,” she said, making sure they were back to back. “Just call me Kai.”
“Kai, right!”
“Good boy.”
Kai swung out to the right but hit only air. They were being pushed to the pit along with all the screaming slaves. Why hadn’t Skeet and Hakon killed the side guards yet? Did she have to do everything herself?
“Above!” Tadi shouted, and Kai reached out to grab the phantom zipper. She was able to grab his cape so that when he zipped again, he took Kai along. He was a great deal stronger than her, but Kai’s strength was always in her grip. She shifted from his loose cape to his arm. The air swirled around them as he zipped her high and low, struggling to get free from her grip.
She heard his breath and identified his tremor. He growled before he zipped.
“Kai!” Tadi cried out. The zipper’s sword was swinging in her direction. Smiling, Kai waited, and when he growled again, she was ready. In the split second it took for him to orient himself, she swung her palm up to his nose. The zipper, anticipating a stab, blocked too far out with his arm. Kai found her mark easily.
Kai’s strike jammed the soldier’s nose deep into his skull, and he collapsed. Then she severed his neck for good measure. She would find words to give his corpse later.
The slaves stopped pressing against them. Kai shouted to them to scatter left and right around the pit. They obeyed. Amidst the swarm of bodies, Tadi grabbed her arm. “Will you marry me?”
“No,” Kai said. She heard a familiar shout and ran, leaving Tadi to deal with the slaves. Skeet was next.
***
Skeet was down to a few pebbles in his pouch—hardly enough to vanish very far if he was lifted into the air. He swung his axe at the two oncoming soldiers. One leapt back, and the other disappeared. Skeet’s dagger instinctively swung left and back, meeting the flesh of the soldier that had zipped behind him. The soldier was wounded but not enough. He was in front of Skeet again, and Skeet used the last of his precious stones to port away as the soldier’s sword swung into the empty air where Skeet had stood.
Now Skeet would have to make sure his feet always touched the ground.
The soldiers advanced again, but the zipper grabbed him before he could react and zipped him high into the air. Skeet cried out as the zipper thrust him back down to the earth—winding him. Skeet reached out and grabbed a handful of dirt, throwing it into the man’s face. The other soldier was upon him, sword swinging.
Then a shadow appeared, catching both soldiers by surprise. They were down in seconds, lifeless. The shadow turned to Skeet.
“You’re welcome!” It was the Su girl. She was gone as soon as she came. Skeet rose to his feet, filling his bag with dirt. She could fight? And wasn’t she blind? He turned his attention to the villagers.
***
Hakon proved more difficult for Kai. He didn’t really need her help. By the time she got to him, he was on his final soldier.
“You can air zip!” The soldier cried, sounding more shocked than afraid. “What is that mark on your forehead? Where did you get that mark?”
Kai listened, curious, but the struggle seemed over. The soldier had disappeared. Kai waited for Hakon to stop zipping and then grabbed his arm.
He swung out with a dagger, and Kai blocked and counterstriked, making Hakon stumble onto his back.
“Lady present,” she said. “I’m here to make a suggestion.”
“Kai!”
“Yes!” she said, pleased that he had used her nickname. “Short and to the point.”
“What are you doing here?”
“Honestly, I came to help. Prove my worth to you.” Kai helped Hakon up. “I suggest you burn the village. And the crops. Make the villagers run as refugees.”
“We could kill the villagers and give the village to the slaves,” Hakon suggested.
“And let another army destroy them? No, this will send a message. I know a place the slaves can go. A cove along the south sea.”
Once Kai convinced Hakon, the slaves were gathered and instructed to go. Kai told them about the cove and its caves in the south, next to the sea. There was plenty of fresh water from the river that met the sea there. They could fish for food. Also, the caves gave them a great vantage point should any Alem attack. They could wait it out there until the Desolate Forest’s borders were safe from marching Alem armies.
Skeet and Tadi set fire to the crops and let the villagers flee west.
The smoke from the fires rose into the dawn. As soon as the fleeing Alem were out of sight, the freed slaves began their march south with the remaining spoils they took from their old masters’ homes.
As the sound of footsteps faded, Kai approached Hakon again. “I have given you my name, saved your companions’ lives, and helped your people. The code demands something be returned for these gifts. Let me accompany you.”
Hakon was silent. He moved away to talk with Tadi and Skeet quietly. Kai pretended not to hear them, but she smiled inwardly. Though none of the Terra said it, Kai knew they were beginning to trust her.
“You may come,” Hakon finally said.
Kai whistled to Maji. “Good,” she said. She heard Maji galloping toward her, and she climbed onto the horse’s back with ease. “Then we head northwest to avoid the next Alem village.” She heard silence in response.
Maji began to walk. Soon Kai could hear the shuffling of footsteps following behind her. Kai smiled with satisfaction. She had earned their trust.
CHAPTER TWENTY–ONE
King Arden’s table of maps glowed an eerie blue, lit only by the snow–filtered winter light outside. The snow was starting to collect along the windows, sealing the entire citadel in a blizzard–made cave. While this was great protection for those who lived in the citadel, it was frustrating the war effort. The king was disturbed by the reports. While they had successfully massacred four villages’ worth of slaves, one village’s report was disquieting. A single soldier had escaped from the incident, followed soon after by the refugee villagers. A small group of Terra—no more than three it seemed, along with one Su—had freed the slaves and set fire to the village. They were burning the crops, just as the king feared. He wanted to hit them with an army, but he was confined to this frozen palace!
He slammed the table out of frustration, causing the maps to shift and the few mugs to be thrown onto the floor.
“Another cup of tea, Master?” Rangi asked. He was the only one in the room now. The others were busy. They were spending every day training the men and recruiting more men and boys for soldiers. The young zippers and vanishers were being sped through their training. As soon as the storm died down, Arden intended to destroy the Terra with all that he had.
