Soul Shade (Soul Stones Book 2)

by T. L. Branson

  Maya dressed them in the military uniform she’d seen Bastian wearing and changed their facial features to be a close enough match to pass a cursory inspection. Had she had more time to study the man, it might have looked a little cleaner.

  Emerging from their hiding place, Maya and Farrow advanced on the doors. Maya held her breath as they drew nearer to the guards.

  “Act natural,” she whispered to Farrow. “Act like you belong here.”

  Maya didn’t acknowledge the guards, and they didn’t pay any attention to her. To them, she was just another high-ranking official coming to report to Kosta about something.

  Once inside the keep, Maya let out the breath she was holding, but they weren’t out of the woods yet. A set of stairs immediately led them down at least a story into the ground. When they reached the bottom, a long hallway with no less than eight doors and branches greeted them.

  Soldiers were going in and out of all of them, but it didn’t take long for Maya to figure out the room they all avoided was at the end of the hall. If she had to guess, this was where she’d find Kosta. He was the type of person who you didn’t go see unless you were summoned.

  “Follow me and keep your head down,” Maya said. “I can guarantee Bastian isn’t in here, but there’s no telling if your doppelganger is.”

  “Wouldn’t I technically be the doppelganger?” Farrow quipped.

  Maya snorted and said, “Just shut up and move.”

  Maya smiled to the next soldier that passed, hoping he hadn’t caught their conversation. The man’s eyes went wide, and he increased his pace.

  “What’d I do?” she asked.

  “Bastian didn’t seem like a man with a sunny disposition,” Farrow commented.

  “Right,” Maya said. “No smiling.”

  “Try brooding,” he said.

  “Brooding is good. Broo—I told you to can it, Corporal,” Maya said. Then she narrowed her eyes and pressed her lips flat.

  Another soldier passed without making eye contact.

  “See, it worked,” Farrow whispered.

  They reached the end of the hall and opened the lone door. The room beyond stretched out about as long as the hallway was and equally as wide. Six torches were placed at regular intervals throughout the room. From the ceiling hung two bowls of fire that gave light to the center of the room.

  At its heart were two tables side by side, a large map out across them. To the left stood a desk surrounded by four large bookcases, and to the right sat five rows of ten chairs, each in front of an easel bearing a large piece of parchment with notes scribbled across it.

  Kosta wasn’t hard to find, standing in front of the map and arguing with a soldier.

  “I want that dragon gone, and I want it gone yesterday,” Kosta said.

  “Every attempt to harm it has ended in more of our men dead,” the soldier replied.

  “I don’t care what you have to do,” Kosta said. “Just do it. There are twenty thousand of us and only one of it. If a few men die in the process, they will have served their kingdom well.”

  “Y—yes, General,” the man replied and took his leave.

  Kosta turned and his eyes fell on Maya. “Bastian,” he said. “The princess better be with you or I’ll have your head.”

  Princess, Maya mocked. That ungrateful cur.

  Maya forced a strained smile like she might expect Bastian to show in an uncomfortable position. In truth, she didn’t have to try very hard, as she felt her own heart flutter at the seriousness of the impending meeting. “May I have a word, General?”

  “Speak,” Kosta said with the wave of his hand.

  “In private, sir?” Maya asked, looking around the room at the ten other soldiers who busied themselves with preparations.

  Kosta sighed. “Clear the room!” he shouted.

  Like obedient soldiers, everyone immediately dropped what they were doing and filed out through the lone exit.

  When all the soldiers had left, Farrow moved as if he, too, were exiting, but instead he engaged the lock and placed a chair under the doorknob.

  “What’s going on here?” Kosta demanded.

  Maya let the illusion drop.

  Kosta laughed. “Well done,” he said, clapping. “I’m not sure how you pulled off that little trick, but you must know that you’re not getting out of this room alive.”

  “We’ll see about that,” Maya said.

  “You obviously went to great lengths to meet with me, so talk,” Kosta said as he leaned back against the edge of the table and crossed his arms.

  “What’s the situation on Kent?” Maya demanded. “The city is in flames, your men had orders to arrest me, and the dragon… don’t get me started on that.”

  “Did you come all this way to shout at me, or is there a point to this?” Kosta asked.

  “I came here to confirm your allegiance and fealty to me as queen,” Maya stated matter-of-factly.

  Kosta stared at Maya for a few seconds, and then said, “No, thank you. You see, with your father gone, and that idiot Callum disgraced, I am the most powerful man in Aralith. Without me, you have no army, Princess. If anyone deserves the title of ‘sovereign,’ it’s me.”

  “I am your queen!” Maya shouted in anger.

  “You are nothing but a traitor!” Kosta yelled back.

  “Traitor?” Maya asked. “Why does that word keep coming up?” she whispered to herself. Then to Kosta she said, “I’m not a traitor. I’m a liberator.”

  “You murdered your own father to steal his power,” Kosta said. “Not to mention you killed my brother. Maybe not you personally, but you ordered it.”

  “I did nothing of the sort,” Maya snapped. “Were you there when my father died? No. I tried to save him! Who told you I murdered him?”

  “The Lord Regent sent word via a hawk.”

  “The Lord Regent shouldn’t have even been aware that my father—did you say a hawk?” Maya asked.

  Kosta narrowed his eyes and nodded.

  “Hawks don’t travel more than a couple of miles, Tikani has got to be nearly five hundred from here. No hawk travels that far unless…”

  “Unless what” Kosta asked.

  “Erintos,” Maya said.

  A vase crashed into the floor and shattered into a hundred pieces. Maya jumped and Kosta whipped his head around. Farrow blushed. “Was that expensive? I’m sorry.”

  “Erintos? Like the god?” Kosta asked, turning his attention back to Maya. He shook his head and scowled. “Get to the point before I decide to kill you anyway.”

  “I met him, he’s an elf, and he wants to kill us all,” Maya said. “He used his power to take the form of a hawk when I first met him. It had to have been him; he sent the message. There’s no other explanation for it. The only thing I can’t figure out is how he got the Lord Regent’s signet ring. We have to assume he’s dead and that Tikani has already fallen to the elves.”

  “Hold up. Slow down. You’re asking me to believe that a long-dead god wants to kill all of mankind and is trying to get us to fight each other while they raise a massive army to swoop in and catch us off guard?” Kosta asks. “I’ve had enough of this. Guards!”

  “General?” came the muffled response from behind the door. The knob jiggled as the man tried to open it, but the door remained locked. Someone pounded at the door. “General?”

  This is going nowhere fast, Maya said to Merva. I need you to show yourself to Kosta like you did to Kessler.

  No, Merva said. You need to win this one on your own if you’re going to earn his respect.

  Maya scoffed inwardly, and then said, “I’m not asking, General. As your queen and commander, I’m ordering you to trust me.”

  “Once again, no, I won’t, because you’re not my queen.”

  A sudden surge of unexplainable anger overtook Maya as she drew her sword and lunged for the general. Placing her left arm on his chest, she drove him back against the wall and lifted her blade up to his throat.

&
nbsp; She started to slide it down his neck, a thin line of red forming at the cut. Her hand shook, and she struggled to steady her breathing. Every emotion within her pressed her to cut off this man’s head, but her instincts were telling her that was the wrong move.

  “Do it!” Kosta spat. “Kill me.”

  “General!” someone shouted again, pounding on the door. “Is everything all right in there?”

  The desire to kill him intensified, and it took every ounce of her strength to restrain herself from doing so. Removing her left arm, she grabbed Kosta and pulled him forward, then she spun behind him, keeping the blade firmly against his throat.

  The stone walls and dark, dank room faded away as Maya, Kosta, and Farrow found themselves on a war-torn battlefield. Thousands upon thousands of bodies lay littered throughout the plain. Blood soaked the ground and turned the grass red as far as the eye could see. Trees appeared as little more than blackened husks, and smoke still rose into the air though no fires were visible.

  But most striking were the faces of the fallen, their expressions forever frozen with horror, pain, and fear. Some stretched out their arms as if reaching for a comrade—others had no arms at all. A crow sat atop one man’s head, picking at his eye and tearing it from its socket.

  Kosta gasped and shuddered beneath Maya’s hold.

  “If you will not listen to me, this is what will become of our kingdom,” Maya said. “But together, we stand a chance against the coming onslaught. Together, we can obtain victory.”

  The door burst open as the chair shattered into multiple pieces and scattered across the room. At least fifteen soldiers filed in, all with their weapons drawn, all pointed at Maya, who still held Kosta at the edge of her blade.

  Removing her sword from his throat, Maya placed her boot on his back and shoved him to the ground. As Kosta sat up on his knees, Maya pointed her weapon at his chest and said, “What say you? Will you stand with me?”

  “Kent pledges their allegiance, my queen.”

  24

  Maya looked out over the military stronghold from the roof of Kent’s command center. The destruction from the dragon’s attack was a black mark on an otherwise beautiful view.

  “Your Majesty, I beg you to come indoors; it’s not safe up here,” General Kosta said.

  “I held my own against that thing once before—it’s not going to scare me away now,” she said, not bothering to turn around. “Where did it come from? There haven’t been dragons in Aralith for hundreds of years, at least none in recorded history.”

  “We’ve not had time to confirm, but all evidence points to it coming from the volcano,” Kosta said. “Within, there was a statue of a dragon that looked remarkably like that one. I suspect we’ll not find it there any longer.”

  “Any idea what awakened it?” she asked.

  “None,” he said, agitation in his voice.

  It must be eating him up not having an answer for everything, Maya thought.

  The dragon was probably Xyrth’s idea, Merva said. He was always fond of the creatures. If the dragon is awake, then so is his soul stone.

  Maya’s chest tightened, and she felt a dull pain in her gut. Until she knew whether this new power was for good or ill, it was just one more problem to worry about.

  “Where are you going next?” Kosta asked.

  “Back to Berxley,” Maya said confidently. “I need to rescue Khal and my friends.”

  “That’s a terrible idea,” Farrow said as he stepped up onto the roof.

  “Nice of you to join us,” Maya said. “The healers fixed you up?”

  He showed her his bandaged arm and said, “All good, just need to change these once every few hours until the pus dies down.”

  “Glad to hear it,” she said smiling. Then, she narrowed her eyes. “And what do you mean, ‘terrible idea’?”

  “Quite frankly,” he said, “it’s already been two days and it will take another day or two to get back. Even with Havan and Kent’s support, there’s still five other provinces besides Berxley that remain unaffiliated. Berxley has no reason to back down, and we have no hope of breaching their walls.”

  “I agree,” Kosta said.

  “You what?” Maya asked. “Surely you jest.”

  “On the contrary, there’s wisdom in the boy’s words,” he said. “My men are busy putting down an insurrection here. If we leave to sail to Kent, we won’t have a city to come back to. Plus, if what you say about an army of elves is true, then civil war is the last thing this kingdom needs.”

  Maya snorted and crossed her arms. “So you just want to forget about our people?”

  “I didn’t say that. But if we could gain the allegiance of at least one more province I think it would go a long way into swaying their minds,” Farrow said.

  “Then I guess we’re going to Penrythe,” Maya said. “It’s the closest city to Berxley.”

  “Sounds wonderful,” Farrow said.

  “What are my orders in your absence?” Kosta asked.

  “Prepare your soldiers for war,” she answered. “And if you can spare a handful of ships, send them to Berxley in five days time.”

  Ocken’s heart fluttered in excitement with the anticipation of visiting Celesti again. Khate was there and his heart with her. Even though he knew they could never be together, there was something about his care for her he’d never been able to replicate. Though, in truth, he’d never really tried.

  Khate was the first and only person he’d ever truly loved. Ocken berated himself for even pondering it. She had a life, a husband, a family—these weren’t things that Ocken should have been thinking about disrupting, even if it only meant showing his face again.

  He would have to take precautions to stay away from Khate and her house. It was for the best. Besides, it had been what? Fifteen years? Or very nearly. They might have moved. Maybe they lived in Penrythe now, for all he knew, though it was fairly unusual for people to move cities in Aralith, Khate had skipped town once before, and Ocken wouldn’t put it past her to do it again to get away from any memory of him, Drygo, and the Soul Render.

  Speaking of the Soul Render, they still hadn’t found Will. Ocken was convinced more than ever that Will had stopped in Luton, but there was no sense in going back now. The road was wide and the forest deep. It would be entirely possible for Will to pass them again and them never know it. So they continued forward.

  The pillar of smoke rising up over the hills ahead had an ominous presence about it. Ocken thought for sure they’d have found some cabin or farm that was aflame by now. That first day they’d run hard and fast, racing to help someone who might be in need.

  As the sun reached its highest point in the sky, they still had not discovered the smoke’s source but its size had nearly tripled since they first set out. This was no simple fire or small cottage—something was wrong.

  Just a little farther. All they had to do was climb to the top of this last hill and they’d have a clear view of the entire countryside.

  With each step they took the hill slowly receded as more of what lay beyond was revealed to them. With one final push, he reached the summit.

  Ocken fell down to his knees, dropping his claymore. It clattered to the ground with a dull, metallic rattle. Clenching his heart, he tried to steady his breathing.

  Celesti was gone.

  All that remained of what used to be the epicenter of knowledge and learning in Aralith was crumbled stone and charred wood. Small fires throughout the whole city continued to burn, reducing what was left to ash with each passing hour.

  “Mother? No!” Robert exclaimed as he fell to the ground on all fours and began to sob. “What happened?” he asked aloud. “Who did this?”

  Ocken could give him no answers. The poor kid had lost his mother. That was all truly terrible, but Ocken found himself only caring about Khate and her family. Had they made it out? What if they had died, too? Ocken hadn’t really met them before, but her husband had helped him, a total stranger, a
nd Riley’s life had been spared in the process. He owed that man a debt of gratitude that he had hoped one day to repay.

  A little piece of him died at the prospect of losing Khate.

  Ocken closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I know this is hard, but we need to put aside emotion for a minute and think,” he said. “Was this Ophi and Erintos? Was it somebody else? Did they do this to themselves? I have more questions than answers.”

  Robert stood and wiped a tear from his eye.

  “You lived here, right?” Ocken asked.

  Sniffling, Robert nodded his head.

  “Is there a place where people might have gone?” Ocken asked. “An emergency shelter or city-wide evacuation plan of any kind?”

  “No,” Robert said as he shook his head. “Not that I can think of. Nothing like this has ever—wait.”

  “What?”

  “When I was ten, I was fascinated with rocks. I liked collecting them, I loved smashing them; well, one day I found a piece of quartz in the ground near the mountains. I followed a narrow path up to the entrance of an old abandoned mine,” Robert explained. “I asked my mother about it, and she said I should never go in there, that a part of the mine had collapsed a few years earlier during Drygo’s invasion. But she also told me that if anything like that ever happened again, despite the risks, that mine was the safest place to be in Celesti.”

  “And you think that’s where everyone would have gone?” Ocken asked.

  “I don’t know,” Robert said with a shrug.

  “It’s worth a shot,” Ocken said. “Let’s go.”

  Khate said goodbye to the Water Lance as she left it behind and walked up the dock into Westbarrow, a town a few miles west of Penrythe. The city of Penrythe was the capital for the province of the same name because of its location. The ruling lord a few centuries back had staked his flag on the top of the tallest mound on the plains—a real-life “king of the hill,” so to speak.

  It hadn’t been the most practical decision in the world. Because of its distance from any body of water, all its supplies had to be brought in via transport from Westbarrow. Penrythe wasn’t alone in that, though. Both Celesti and Derton weren’t settled on any established waterways, either. But Celesti had its library, and Derton was a major stop on the trade roads. Penrythe had nothing.