The Last Winter (The Circle War Book 2)

by Matt King

  ■ ■ ■

  The Saufiex system.

  They were the only words he received from Meryn after she disappeared. Despite what some in the Circle chose to believe, he’d heard nothing since, and had made no attempt to find her. In truth, he didn’t want to. Meryn’s insistence on joining his side in the war seemed destined to confuse his efforts at the time, but in her absence, he had learned to appreciate her resources. Now her troops were an integral part of his plan—a plan that was soon to bear fruit in the form of his champion’s arrival on Earth.

  Velawrath will end your threat once and for all, Lady Amara, and I will be there to enjoy every second of it.

  Paralos slowed himself to a drifting speed as he entered the Saufiex system. As a precaution, he scanned the surroundings for other members of the Circle who might have followed him. Not that they could have. He had executed so many hops through synapses, zigzagging across the universe, that no one could have picked up his trail.

  His scan found no energy. Not even Meryn’s.

  The sun at the center of the Saufiex cluster was a giant of a star, yellow and pulsing with light. He could see its rays stretching beyond the straggling planets at the border of its gravitational pull. He sensed no life, though, and wondered why Meryn would lay claim to such a desolate collection of worlds. No wonder she’s the weakest.

  “I am alone,” he said through the broadcast of his thoughts around the drifting worlds, though he didn’t expect a reply. “No one has followed.”

  Nothing.

  “I have come with the Circle’s decision,” he said, “should you care to hear it.”

  He felt an awakening of energy nearby, followed by an electrical influx that sent shockwaves through the planets. All around him, elemental reactions began to heat the dead cold of space.

  “Show yourself!” he shouted.

  “I already have.”

  He whipped around, searching for her on all sides. Meryn’s voice was broken and stuttered, like a newborn god speaking for the first time. He scanned the empty void.

  The sun behind him erupted with energy, spewing large tendrils of plasma into space. Meryn emerged from its core, drifting from the center of the star like a baby slipping from a mother’s womb. She seemed to unfold right in front of him, growing in size and power until her energy caused the star to shatter in a spray of fire. He moved away until he was far enough back to see her in her entirety. It had been some time since he’d been in the presence of a god at full energy while he was only a fraction of his power. He didn’t like the feeling. If it wouldn’t raise an alarm to their enemies, he would have called to the rest of his energy to form.

  “Clever,” he said to her. “Your ability to deceive continues to impress, Meryn.”

  She didn’t answer for some time. Instead, she breathed in her surroundings, oblivious to his presence. The strength of her light was blinding.

  “The Circle has spoken?” she asked, her voice now booming.

  He nodded. “You are safe. For the moment, anyway.”

  “Where are my champions? My army?”

  “All safe. We can discuss them later. First, you should know who is on your side in this war.”

  He’d finally caught her attention. She morphed her energy to form her human shape. Her hair extended into space like the slowly moving flares of a sun. She looked down at him.

  “Soraste?” she asked.

  “Yes, of course, although I doubt Amara will cry any tears over losing her. She was the first to join you. Anemolie, as you know, has thrown her support behind Amara.”

  Meryn didn’t react. “Tell me of the others.”

  “We have lost Tamaril. This is a blow to our side, Meryn. Tamaril was one I thought we could convince.”

  “His faith is strong,” she replied. “You knew that.”

  “Yes, but a person’s faith is sometimes brittle in the face of death.”

  “Not all gods fear death,” she said. Her voice sounded as though it came from someone who knew from experience. It was chilling.

  “Regardless, we move on without him.”

  “Cerenus, then. What of the mischievous god?”

  “I believe that summarizes it,” he answered. “Cerenus continues to avoid alignment. He voted for you simply for his amusement, nothing more. Had Tamaril joined us, he would have pronounced you guilty just so he could see Balenor shrink under Amara’s glare.”

  “Balenor…” Meryn said his name with some measure of relief.

  “Yes, Balenor. He saved you, Meryn. Without him, I would be coming to collect you for your execution.”

  “Would you?” she asked. He didn’t care for the threatening air of confidence in her question.

  “If it meant losing this war otherwise, then my answer is yes.”

  “Allies to the end.”

  “You remember that I did not ask for your part in this war, Meryn. Never once. Don’t think I didn’t consider giving you up along the way. Your actions were dangerous—dangerous and foolish. You could have triggered the Circle to split early, before we could convince them of Amara’s evils. You almost destroyed everything we’ve been fighting for.”

  “My exile provided no shortage of reflections on those events. I know the consequences of my actions and their effects on the Circle.” She floated closer to him. “I am sorry, Paralos, for the trouble I have caused.”

  He wasn’t expecting an apology. He searched for a response that he hadn’t anticipated preparing. “All behind us now,” he said. “We should turn our attention to the war.”

  “Later,” she replied. “I wish to see my champions.”

  “You can see one of them. The Lawson man is waiting for you on one of my worlds.”

  Meryn smiled. Her light glowed warm.

  Interesting.

  “And August?”

  “You’ll have to wait for your reunion with that one,” he said. “Mr. Dillon will be much too busy to think about chatting with old friends for some time.”

  CHAPTER FIVE

  August couldn’t tell if it was night or day when they left to find Aeris’s camp. The sky was still the same dark shade of gray it had been when he first stepped foot on Vontanu. At least he didn’t have to deal with the lava monsoon anymore. The fiery rain had lasted for hours, leaving behind a carpet of lumpy ashes on the forest floor. His footsteps made a crunching sound that reminded him of icy winter days in Massachusetts, one of the few things he didn’t miss about home.

  “How much longer?” he asked.

  “Not long,” Aeris answered. “We should be able to make it there before you need another rest.”

  “Funny.”

  Once they were clear of the forest, the camp came into view at the base of the hills. He slowed to take it all in. There were thousands of glass-top domes buried in the ground, carpeting the barren countryside all the way to the horizon. There must be a small country’s worth of people here. A large glass arena stood tall in the center of the camp. Sitting on top was a polished statue of a warrior, standing with a pair of chakram-like weapons held toward the sky. Its reflective exterior seemed wasted on the dull surroundings.

  He pointed to a centipede-like vehicle moving across the valley floor. “What’s that thing?”

  A train of hexagonal pods rode on a cushion of air as it skirted the domed villages. Each car had a glass top like those buried in the ground.

  “That is the solemir of the Orlesse,” Aeris said. “They are the last of the great families to arrive.”

  The solemir curved to the right before coming to a stop, separating into individual sections connected by translucent metal tubing. The cars kicked up a cloud of debris as they settled onto the dusty earth. A humming noise like a swarm of bees rose out of the camp. The cars sank into the floor of the valley, submerging into the soil until only the glass tops were visible above the surface.

  “Now that the Orlesse are here, our council will meet soon,” she said. “I must leave you to prepare. You shou
ld be a part of the planning for the Departes. Until we meet, a room has been prepared for you, there.” She pointed to a larger dome at the base of the plateau. Beside it was a wide walkway dug into the ground.

  She walked off in the opposite direction.

  “How will I know when this meeting starts?” he called after her.

  “Dondannarin will come for you.”

  Oh, Dondannarin. That explains everything. Aeris’s cloak billowed behind her as she trekked down the slope toward the Orlesse solemir, leaving him standing on the hillside. He looked back to the doorway. A large crowd of people gathered near the entrance. He wondered what they would think of him, or if they’d even be able to understand him.

  Only one way to find out.

  He closed his mask to shield himself from the dust swirling on the wind. It wasn’t long until he started garnering long looks from the people outside. A pair of women sat beside the entrance. He focused on them as he walked past the group of gawking Vontani. The women at the door were a lighter shade of gray than Aeris. The older-looking of the two wore her long hair in a single braid that fell down the front of her gown. The other stayed hidden beneath her robe, leaving only her silver eyes visible. They stopped talking when he got close.

  “Hi there,” he said.

  The younger woman looked at the older with a confused frown. Her eyes flitted to him.

  “I was told there was a room for me? I’m August.”

  “There,” the old woman replied, pointing down the path dug into the ground. She and the younger girl walked away quickly.

  “Thanks. I’ll…see you later.”

  He pushed ahead, aware that everyone behind him was still staring.

  A feeling of déjà vu hit him as soon as he entered the narrow chamber. The colorless utilitarian walls reminded him of the deathtrap he’d wandered into back at Galan’s factory. At the end of the hallway, he approached a large room filled with chattering Vontani. Light poured in through the clear ceiling. Halfway there, he veered off into a hallway lined with narrow oval doorways. He walked slowly past each one, trying to decipher the writing on the doors. Each had a large symbol inside a circle of hieroglyphics similar to those on Aeris’s headband. Nothing he saw resembled “Alien Visitor’s Room.” Apparently the Rosetta Stone in his brain didn’t cover reading the Vontani alphabet.

  Finally, after a dozen rooms, he came to one that looked different from the others. It was a dull shade of gold with an embossed picture in the center resembling the warrior statue he’d seen earlier. He touched his hand to the metal, then quickly jerked it away as the door separated into diagonal blades that slid into the wall. He looked around first before peeking inside to make sure no one was there. As soon as he stepped over the threshold, the blades closed with a whisper, forming a solid sheet of cream-colored metal behind him.

  Let’s hope this is mine.

  The room was the shape of a pie wedge, with bare walls and a single cylindrical table in the center. At the far end of the room, a capsule rose out of the floor. It looked like someone had buried half a coffin and then placed a glass covering on it—yet another reminder of Galan’s creepshow. He was starting to wonder if they didn’t use the same decorator.

  He retracted his mask and walked to the table. A clear disc covered the top. He brushed his fingers across the surface, half expecting a hologram to appear. When he touched the center, the disc stirred to life, gathering into a curved shape like an artist’s palette. Blue filaments spelled out Vontani letters on the surface. He pressed one.

  The light on the ceiling winked out, leaving him in darkness until the walls on either side of him warmed to an off-white glow. Images formed on the surface. Soon he was surrounded by a lush countryside, with reddish-blue grass covering the ground. The landscape changed over to longer blue reeds as the scene focused on a row of tall dunes. The sky had a faint yellow tinge to it, like the kind he used to see right before a summer thunderstorm. Beyond the dunes, a rough ocean churned, its water interrupted by towering rocks.

  He looked back that the wall behind him. A group of three Vontani approached the dunes riding on something that looked like a wooly lion. They dismounted just before the beach, and he followed along with their images as they walked along the walls of the room to the other side. A man and a woman laughed as a child ran between them to reach the water first. The father caught up to her and lifted her into the air. He looked like a king in his radiant blue and brown armor. His wife saw to the child’s hair, tying it together with a gold band. It was hard not to smile at them.

  “She loves this scene,” a woman’s voice said.

  August spun around. An older Vontani woman stood in the entrance. She had noticeable crow’s feet around the corners of her eyes, but she stood straight and tall, giving off an air of power despite her age. Her eyes caught the light of the movie as she stepped into the room.

  “I am Dondannarin,” she said. Her voice was huskier than Aeris’s, but shared the same quasi-French accent.

  “August.”

  “Yes, I know.” She walked toward the screen on the table and switched off the projection. The walls faded to gray again. “This is Aeris’s room.”

  “Oh, right. I figured, I was just… just…”

  “Follow me and I will show you to yours.”

  “Sure thing.” He took a final look back before he walked through the door. The palette melted back into the top of the table.

  She led him along the curved walkway to a room with a slightly smaller door. She stepped aside to let him in.

  “Not as nice as the Revenent’s room, I’m afraid, but it will allow you to rest comfortably.”

  The room was barely ten feet across at the doorway, narrowing along its length. Another coffin sat slanted against the back wall. Other than that, there was nothing.

  “This is cozy.” He dropped his bag on the ground, decreasing the square footage by half. “So, how long have you known Aeris?”

  “I was her father’s leader of the guard, responsible for training his warriors, Aeris included. I have known her since she was born.”

  “And how long ago was that?”

  “I believe this will be nineteen years soon.”

  “Nine…teen?” He suddenly felt dirty. “I thought she was older.”

  “Nineteen is a seasoned age.”

  “Not where I come from.”

  “I doubt where you come from that you measure your life by the cycle of Departes. Such a thing does not come around often. I did not have so many lines on my face the last time.” She crossed her arms. “Now that you have met, what is your impression of our Revenent?”

  “Is that Aeris?”

  “It is.”

  He shrugged. “You know, she’s okay, I guess. Seems like I might’ve caught her at a bad time.”

  “War is seldom a good time. Be patient with her. The real Aeris is hidden somewhere beneath her armor.” She smoothed out the fabric of her robe. “I will come for you when the council is ready,” she said. “Until then, you should rest. The Departes is close.”

  She started down the hall.

  “Wait,” he called after her.

  “Yes?”

  “You wouldn’t happen to have a knife on you, would you?”

  “A knife?”

  “Something sharp, like…” He took out one of his blades and pointed to the edge.

  She gave him a skeptical look before reaching inside her ivory gown to produce an object that looked more like a spike than a knife. At least it had some edge to it.

  “Thought I’d shave,” he said.

  Her smile was brief, replaced with a confused side glance before she walked away.

  ■ ■ ■

  “August, are you all right?”

  August shot up from his mini-nap to see Dondannarin speaking to him from the doorway. The cabin air cooled his freshly-shaved cheeks and neck. He ran his hands through his hair, hoping that it didn’t look like someone had taken a weed-whacker to it.
He could only see so much in his blade’s reflection. At the very least, it should’ve been uniform. He cut anything that hung over his fist when he grabbed it.

  “I’m okay. What’s up?”

  “Your hair… Did something in the atmosphere cause this?” She circled her finger around her face.

  “Oh, no. Just thought it was time for a change.”

  “I understand,” she said, but by the confused smile she gave, he guessed the opposite. “The council is ready to meet. Follow me.”

  Instead of taking him farther into the string of connected modules, she led him back outside, where he heard the rumblings of a crowd as soon as he reached the mouth of the tunnel. The large transparent dome loomed ahead of them in the center of the cluster of buried habitats. A line of people stood outside the door waiting to get in, but the inside looked nearly full already. People were pushed against the sides as they jockeyed for position. In the center of the crowd stood a raised oval stage. A few women were already seated in chairs around the perimeter.

  Dondannarin bypassed the crowd and took him around to another entrance guarded by a pair of Vontani soldiers holding staffs with sharpened metal ends. They bowed their heads as she passed, exposing the circular chakrams hanging on their backs. Some nasty-looking blades ran around the outside curve of the ringed weapons, while the inside had serrations like shark’s teeth.

  Once they were through the door, the anxious chatter echoing through the dome hit him like a smack in the face. The chatter turned to whispers as they made their way to the stage. He kept his eyes forward, trying not to look overwhelmed in the face of thousands of gawking stares.

  I should’ve put on my mask.

  He followed Dondannarin up a ramp that ended in a raised platform. A wave of muffled conversation settled over the crowd of women as he took the seat Dondannarin pointed to. Instead of taking her own chair, she stood at his side.

  “This is the Vontani Council,” she whispered to him. “Each chair represents a lineage of Vontani families. There are twelve in all.”

  “Who gets the big chair?” He pointed to the larger seat to his left.