“I already sent them,” Abell replied.
“See?” Will said to Sowena. “Someone is already on the case.”
“But they haven’t returned,” the governor said.
“See?” Sowena snapped back, mocking him. “They need our help.”
“Don’t you understand this is exactly what the elves want?” Will said. “They knew we’d be following them, so they set up a diversion to make sure we’d lose their trail. Every second that passes, that elf gets closer and closer to returning the stone to Ophi.”
“And every moment you waste arguing with me is one less for that little girl,” Sowena said, refusing to budge.
“Fine. We’ll help,” Will told Abell.
“Oh, thank you, thank you,” Abell said.
“Don’t thank me yet,” Will said. “Which way did they go?”
“To the south, toward Derton,” the governor answered.
“And the elf with the soul stone was going north,” Will murmured to himself. “Go figure.” Louder, he said, “Do you have any horses?”
“Yes,” the governor responded. “They’re stabled out back. Please take them—whatever you need, it’s yours.”
“I’ll take some rope as well,” Will answered.
“It’s as good as done,” Abell said.
Ten minutes later, Will and Sowena were saddled up and trotting south.
“What’s the rope for?” Sowena asked.
“Let’s just say I’d like this body back and in good condition,” Will answered. “But I won’t be with you for most of the journey.”
“You aren’t going after that stone, are you?” Sowena asked.
“No, though Lotess knows I’d like to,” Will said.
Of course I do. I know everything in your heart, Lotess said.
It’s just an expression, Will said.
“Just keep my horse from running off and know that I’m around,” Will said.
He wrapped the rope around himself and the horn of the saddle, tied a knot, and pulled it tight. Using his power, he leapt off the horse with his soul, leaving his body behind to continue its ride south.
A short distance away, a flock of black birds hopped about on the ground. Will dove at one of them indiscriminately and took over its body. Colors heightened and grew more intense, while the edges of his peripherals stretched and blurred.
Flapping his wings, Will took off and soared through the air. Sowena and the other horse bearing his body trotted along below him. Will flew down and cut past Sowena’s head, hoping to clue her in to where he was.
Instead she screamed and swatted at him. Will banked and cawed in surprise. Leaving her behind, Will rose into the sky once more and continued forward. His eyes scanned the ground below as he looked for any signs of the governor’s daughter.
After a few minutes, he spotted a body on the road ahead. Will swooped down low and saw that it was a man—likely one that Abell had sent. The shaft of an arrow protruded from his chest.
Will almost landed next to the man, but then halted when he heard shouting off in the distance. He ascended once more and flew off in the direction of the sounds.
An elf stood on top of a hill, a sheer cliff on one side and two men waiting at the bottom of the hill on the other. The body of a young girl lay on the ground behind the elf, curled into the fetal position.
Shouting, the elf let fly arrow after arrow at the two men below. One man sat on the ground, leaning up against a rock, a red stain on the stone behind him. The second leaned out from behind his cover and ducked back again after loosing his own arrow.
They seemed to have the elf pinned, but one of them was either dead or badly injured, and the other wasn’t taking any chances.
The elf was trapped. His blue, ragged soul told Will that he was nervous and afraid. The elf didn’t know these lands—he probably hadn’t meant to get stuck there and now his likely death stared him in the face. If only he knew how imminent it really was.
This was too easy—a waste of his time and his skill. Will dive bombed toward the captor, pulling in his wings and rushing straight for the elf’s face. The elf must have seen Will, because his attention turned toward the sky at the black object rushing towards him.
He drew a sword and prepared to swat at Will, but he couldn’t possibly know that it would do no good. When Will was five feet away from the elf, he dropped the bird’s body and let his soul plunge head first into the elf like a falling star.
32
The force of the blast knocked the elf onto his back, and he was gone before he knew what hit him. Opening his eyes, Will found the dead bird lying on top of him.
Abell’s daughter whimpered a few feet away, still curled into a ball.
“It’s all right,” Will said. “He’s gone. I’ve killed him.”
The girl glanced at him, but her sobs continued. Will stood and walked to the edge of the hill.
“You can come up now!” Will shouted down to the guards. “My name is Will Sumner. Governor Abell sent me to rescue his daughter.”
Behind him, the girl’s crying paused, and Will turned his head. As he did so, the twang of a bow echoed through the air. He spun back around and caught an arrow in the eye, killing the body instantly.
Will would have cursed but, once again in his soul form, he had no tongue to speak.
The elf’s body made a dull thud as it landed on its back—the shaft of the arrow sticking straight up into the air. Now sitting on her knees, the girl, having likely never seen a dead body before, screamed at the sight.
Sowena emerged from the forest a few hundred feet away with Will’s other body in tow. Running down the hill, Will passed one of Abell’s men as the guard emerged from behind his cover and started a tentative trek to the top.
Will wasted no time and leapt into his body on the horse. His back straightened, and he took a deep breath as he resumed control.
“You’re back,” Sowena said. “Is everything all right?”
“More or less,” Will said, rubbing his eye where he still felt phantom pains.
Untying himself, he hopped off the horse and raced back to the foot of the hill. The wounded guard’s eyes went wide, and he opened his mouth to scream, but the expansion of his chest caused him to wince and all that came out was a groan.
“It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you,” Will said.
“Get away from me, you blasted elf!” the man hissed through clenched teeth. He lazily swung the dagger in his hand, but Will wasn’t close enough for it to even come close to striking.
Will held up his hands and said, “I—”
“Rees?” Sowena said as she ran up beside Will.
“Sowena?” he asked. “Get away from the elf! Run!”
“No, it’s fine, Rees,” she said. “I promise, he’s a friend. It’s… complicated.”
The man glanced back and forth between Will and Sowena. Rees dropped his dagger without protest, but his eyes told Will that he wasn’t convinced. At least the man wasn’t trying to kill him anymore.
Will thought about leaving Sowena to tend to Rees and going to find the other guard and Abell’s daughter, but then he realized he wouldn’t fare much better with that man than he did with Rees.
“The girl is at the top of the hill,” Will said. “Go check on her, will you? I’ll take care of Rees.”
Sowena nodded and took off.
“Where does it hurt?” Will asked.
Rees laughed, or tried to—it came out more like a cough that ended with a grunt. “Do you have eyes, elf?” he asked. “It hurts everywhere.”
The man was a bloodied mess, and it was nigh impossible for Will to tell where his wounds were without first stripping off his clothing. To do so meant exposing his body to the continually dropping temperatures as the sun began to dip behind the trees. They were only a half an hour south of Luton, and Will decided it was best to try to get him back. He was no healer. Though with Lukas dead, he wasn’t sure what else could be done.
<
br /> Sowena returned with the girl and guard.
“Sowena tells me you did this,” the guard said, motioning back to the top of the hill. “I—I’m sorry I didn’t believe you. I shot you—killed you.”
Rees furrowed his brow.
“Pretty hard to kill me,” Will said, “but it hurt to the high heavens.”
“Well, thank you, Will,” the guard said. “And my apologies once more.”
“We need to get your friend back right away if we want him to live,” Will said. “Even then, I don’t think there’s anything that can be done. I’m no healer, but I’m almost certain these wounds are fatal.”
“Didn’t you tell me once that you could place someone else’s soul into a different body?” Sowena asked. “Could you put Rees in that elf at the top of the hill?”
“I could, but that elf is dead,” Will said. “That won’t do Rees any good. And we all need ours. It’s not like we have any spare, soulless bodies lying around. Or maybe…”
“What?” she asked.
“I’ll tell you when we get back. The point is moot if he dies before we make it,” Will said. To the other guard, he added, “Help me get him onto my horse.”
The man nodded and said, “The name’s Emlyn, by the way.”
“Pleasure,” Will said, as he put his neck under Rees’s right arm. Emlyn did the same on the other side and together they stood.
Rees groaned and hissed, but otherwise held his tongue, dealing with the pain. Lifting him up onto the horse, Will and Emlyn laid him against the horse’s neck. Will hopped up behind him.
Beside them, Sowena boosted Abell’s daughter onto her horse, then swung herself up.
“You might be able to climb up, Emlyn,” Sowena said.
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “She can’t take a third rider. It’s all right, I’ll walk back. I want to get Harris anyway, and bring him back so his family can give him a proper burial.”
“Be careful,” Will said.
At that, he turned his horse around and galloped off toward Luton as fast as he dared push the horse. Each gallop jolted Rees’s body a tiny bit, eliciting a soft moan.
As they road into the city several minutes later, Will veered off to the left, heading towards the farmhouses at the edge of town.
“The governor’s mansion is this way!” Sowena said, pointing to the center of town.
“Not going to the governor,” Will said.
Sowena pulled on the reins and directed her horse to follow Will. Coming to a stop outside of the Pendley’s house, Will dismounted and began helping Rees down. Rowland came running out of the house. Not wanting to play twenty questions about being elf, Will removed Rees’s helmet and slipped it over his own head, covering his ears.
“What happened?” Rowland asked.
“Oh, just another day saving the world,” Will quipped. “He’s badly injured. Can you help me get him inside?”
“Gladly, but I have to ask, why bring him here? I’m not running a clinic and I’m not a healer.”
“I didn’t know where else to bring him,” Will replied. “Or who else to ask this, but do you know where Harry Harstens’ body is?”
“Sure,” Rowland replied. “He’s in the spare room, they moved him here two days ago, but—”
“Great!” Will said. He couldn’t have planned it any better. “Come. Quickly now.”
Sowena burst into the house, the wooden door slamming against the wall from the force. She rushed up beside Will and Rowland as they laid Rees on the floor next to Harry’s body.
“What are you doing?” Sowena asked.
“Just watch,” Will said. “And please don’t ask any questions till I’m done.”
Will had only done a transfer like this once before, and it had been from a stone into a body. It sort of just happened. And any direct swaps he’d made had involved two living people who both had souls. Here, he dealt with a man whose soul was very weak and another that had none at all. There was a good possibility that Will would shred Rees’s soul at the slightest touch, and Will didn’t want to get anyone’s hopes up unnecessarily.
Reaching out with his left hand, Will took hold of Rees’s arm—with his right, he touched the body of Harry Harstens. Will closed his eyes, and then opened them in the soul realm. Rees’s soul pulsed a very dull, light blue. He was almost gone.
As gently as he could, Will pulled Rees’s soul free at the arm and lifted it up to touch Harry’s hand. The weak soul clung to the strong body and transferred on its own.
Rees’s head fell back at the same time that Harry’s eyes popped open.
“Harry?” Rowland asked.
Rees, now in Harry’s body, sat up in the bed.
“By the gods. You woke up Harry,” Rowland said. His face beamed with new life and excitement. All the weariness and grief of the past week or more had washed away. “If you can save Harry, that means you can save my Maggie, right?”
Will cringed. He didn’t know how to tell—
“Who’s Harry?” Rees asked.
Rowland looked at Rees in Harry’s body and frowned. “You Harry… you’re back!”
“No, my name is Rees,” he said. “Oh, I think I know who you’re talking about. His family froze to death, but somehow he survived. Is he doing any better?”
Sowena brought a mirror into the room and handed it to Rees. He took it and held it up, touching his cheek with his mouth open.
“Kudu’s beard,” Rees said. “I’m Harry? What? How?”
“The soulfiend tore Harry’s soul from his body, and yours was about to die, so I placed your soul in his body.”
“Wait,” Rees said. “You’re telling me that that soulfiend thing Sowena was talking about was real?”
Will nodded.
“I think I need to sit down,” Rees said.
“You already are,” Sowena commented.
“Oh, right,” he replied. “This is just—this is wow. I can’t—”
“Just relax, alright? Breathe,” Will said, placing a hand on his shoulder. “I’ve got to go see the governor, but I’ll be back in about ten minutes.”
“So Maggie really is gone?” Rowland asked.
Will turned to look at him, but had no words.
“I know you told me she was, but I just couldn’t let go of hope,” he said.
“I’m sorry,” was all Will managed to say. Then he stood and left the room with Sowena on his heels.
Will stepped through the door and noticed the horses were gone, and so was Abell’s daughter. “Where’d they go?” he asked.
“Back to the governor’s house,” Sowena said. “Siri’s a capable rider. She took them home.”
“Siri?” Will asked.
“Abell’s daughter,” Sowena answered.
Will hadn’t even thought to ask for the girl’s name. To him, she was just an inconvenience preventing him from his mission, but having saved her life, he felt foolish and ashamed at the notion.
When they arrived at Abell’s mansion, the governor was there waiting for them.
“Thank you, thank you so much,” Abell said. “I’m not sure how I can ever repay you.”
“Well, you can start with full confidence in my knowledge and plans next time,” Will said. “Soulfiends, elves, war, and all that good stuff.”
“War?” Abell said, his back going a little straighter.
“Yeah,” Will replied. “What do you think? After a thousand years, the elves came to have tea and biscuits with us?” Then Will’s face fell and he grew more serious. “Celesti is already gone. And I’m betting somewhere out there is an elf encampment. That’s where they’re taking the soul stone. And that’s where I need to go.”
“Did you say Celesti was… gone?” Abell asked.
“The elves laid waste to the entire city. Everyone is dead,” Will said. “My guess is they’re coming here next. If I were you, I’d evacuate to Derton and wait for word from the queen. And when it comes, you’d better listen.”
“Luton is the queen’s to command,” the governor said.
The road from Celesti to Luton had been long with nearly fifty refugees. Ocken was glad when the rooftops came into view about two miles off in the distance. It wasn’t that he didn’t like the group—in fact, it reminded him of his time guarding Leland’s caravan. But it was only a matter of time before Will did something stupid, and Ocken knew Robert desperately wanted to find him.
“We’re almost there,” Ocken said, pointing to Luton. “The city’s right over that way. Just a little while longer.”
“Good,” Gus said as he grabbed his belly. “I haven’t walked this far since I was a young man. My legs are killing me and I think I’ve got a side stitch.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Ocken noticed something fall out of a nearby tree. He turned and looked to see what it was. An apple fell to the ground, followed by a girl who’d jumped out of the tree.
Picking up the apples, she lifted her head and gave out a shriek in fright when she saw Ocken, then she turned and ran into the forest.
“Hey!” Ocken called out. “Wait!”
But she was gone.
“That was a bit strange, no?” Gus said.
“A girl in the woods, or that she screamed at the sight of Ocken’s face?” Robert quipped, sidling up beside them.
Gus roared in laughter.
“Ha, ha,” Ocken said dryly. “She could be in danger if there are elves about.”
“We can’t worry about every person in Aralith,” Robert said. “We’ve already got a responsibility to the Celestians. If she’s traveling through the forest, she can take care of herself.”
“Perhaps,” Ocken said. “Still.”
“I know I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again,” Gus said. “We appreciate you men taking the time to escort us. Just knowing you’re here has eased some of our minds.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” Robert said.
There was more truth to that than he realized. Had it been up to Ocken, they would have gone in search of the elven encampment immediately. It bothered him not knowing where his enemy was and how many there were. Lack of that type of knowledge often got even the best soldiers killed.
Soul Shade (Soul Stones Book 2) Page 25
