Fall of Ashes (Spirelight Trilogy Book 1)

by C. Ellsworth

Addy nodded. “We can only prepare as best we can. We all have doubts and fears, but we can’t let it get to us.” Now she just needed to convince herself!

  A strangled cry echoed abruptly in the night, rising above the din of battle, the last desperate cry of another victim. The fight continued. The number of attackers had been nowhere near the number that Addy had initially feared, though. If there had been, skeg would have been swarming the halls. If anything, the battle seemed to be drawing to completion now, with the commotion having died down considerably since—

  Dark, fluttering voids appeared in the hallway before them, obscuring the light from a nearby wall-mounted lamp. Their eyes, showing pale through the narrow openings in their black hoods, locked on Addy and the others, and in an instant, their weapons were in hand. One revealed two daggers, much like Addy’s, and the other brandished two large, curved blades.

  Addy’s breath caught. That one with the swords . . . those fancy, etched blades. It couldn’t be! Lord of Light, no! A scream rose in her throat and stuck. Those pale eyes—a scar crossing between them—darted and focused on her through the opening in that dark garb. There was no mistake this time. It was the skeg from Old Town. And he had come for her!

  Chapter 18

  Addy’s companions leaped into battle, Traizen toward scar-face, and Karine—after a moment of hesitation—toward the other. Sorsia grabbed Addy by the sleeve and drew her close. “Stay beside me!”

  Addy backed up close to the wall beside Sorsia, her hands trembling around the handles of her daggers. From this position, she had a clear view of the erupting chaos, and while she wasn’t yet in the thick of it, she wasn’t about to avoid it either.

  Traizen’s two-handed hammer parted air, his arms bulging to drive the weapon toward his target’s chest. The skeg leaped back and knocked the hammer aside with his long, curved blade.

  Karine now moved with purpose, meeting the second skeg with a raised blade, knocking aside both of his thrusting daggers with loud clangs before countering with an overhead strike. Her sword merely passed through empty air, though, as her target rolled to the side, coming to stand again with blades whirling.

  Sorsia’s voice cried out, “More behind us!”

  Addy spun about, her heart clenching. Two more skeg were charging toward them, and there was no time to think. She leaped into position and met the first one with a right-hand stab toward his neck, but her target dodged to the side, and the blade jabbed instead into his shoulder. The man merely chuckled and moved to counter as if nothing had happened.

  Beside Addy, Sorsia gave a challenging cry and charged forward, but Addy kept her eyes fixed on her opponent. Her heart pounded in her ears. One pale eye narrowed at her, the other being a mangled mass of scarred flesh. A trickle of blood oozed from his shoulder and rolled unnaturally off his dark, loose clothing to drip on the floor. Focus on the eyes—eye! Focus on the eye!

  The skeg—standing a foot taller than Addy—took another step forward, the veil covering his mouth stretching into a smile. He said something in that guttural language and then added in a broken, heavily accented tongue, “You will make fine plaything for kha’lat.”

  No one was going to make Addy a plaything! She darted forward, dagger swinging in an upward motion, but the skeg’s blade flashed from within the dark folds of his loose garb and blocked her strike. The clash sent a surge of pain up her forearm and numbed her hand. Don’t hold it so tight! She quickly flexed her fingers on the handle, and some of the feeling returned to her hand.

  Shadowy garments fluttering, the skeg swung his sword, aiming for her throat. With her right hand still tingling, she raised her off-hand blade to block. The skeg’s larger blade crashed hard against her smaller dagger, and hot lightning shot up her arm. She cried out in pain, and watched as her blade went skittering across the stone floor.

  Sorsia was a blur of motion beside Addy, delivering relentless blows with fist-weapons now bloodied. But her opponent still looked more than capable as he twisted repeatedly to dodge before striking back.

  Addy’s opponent made a sudden move to the side. She pivoted to meet him with remaining dagger rising, and then the skeg’s blade was arcing toward her. But it came at an unexpected angle, swiping upward instead of from the side. Addy twisted to compensate, but her foot slipped. The floor was slick!

  The floor rose up to meet her.

  The skeg’s blade whistled just inches overhead, and then Addy’s back struck the floor, blasting the wind from her lungs. Specs of light, blue and silver, danced across her vision. She gasped for air, then made to rise, but everything was spinning. Why wasn’t she dead? She blinked to clear her vision.

  Sorsia had moved to face both opponents now, blocking one attack from her own skeg and then another from Addy’s. Addy slid back a step and rose on trembling legs. Then a blade flashed, and Sorsia took a blow to the ribs. Addy cried out, but Sorsia fought on, seemingly oblivious to the blood beginning to ooze through her vest. Sorsia moved forward with another flurry of attacks, this time connecting once and then again with her target’s veiled chin.

  The skeg gave a cry and crumpled backward.

  Addy gripped the handle of her remaining dagger, her vision mostly clear now. But before she took a single step, shouts erupted from down the hall in both directions. More skeg? No, a dozen or more guardsmen poured into view, waving swords and clubs and knives. Praise the Tower! Laughter and tears, both, welled up inside her.

  The skeg still facing Sorsia paused, momentarily distracted by the commotion rising up behind him. Then, with a sickening crunch, Sorsia’s spiked knuckles sunk deep into his face, one spike piercing each eye socket and a third, the bridge of his nose. He twitched once, and then fell beside his silent friend.

  Addy turned. Traizen and Karine still stood, and only one skeg remained. Scar-face. He stood now with swords raised before him, but he didn’t move to attack. He merely stood there, pale eyes darting this way and that. With the guardsmen closing in, he had to know he was beaten. There were simply too many to fight, even for him.

  Scar-face gave his blades a quick flourish before they vanished in a flurry of his black garb. Then he just stood there, still and quiet, hands outstretched to his sides as if surrendering.

  Addy nearly laughed. Oh, yes, the despicable thing that had cut her in Old Town was about to die!

  Then the skeg spoke something in that unintelligible tongue, but no one made a move toward him. They simply stood there, eyes wide and weapons twitching, looking at each other as if waiting for someone else to go first. Why weren’t they cutting him down?

  Scar-face raised a cautious hand toward his veiled face, his pale eyes moving to settle on Addy. Addy swallowed, and a soft groan escaped her lips. He really was here for her! Why? She was no one special! Why would he risk his life to come here just for one simple girl?

  The skeg unfastened his veil and let it fall. His nose was like a hawk’s beak, his grinning mouth too large for his pasty-white face. “You.” He nodded toward Addy, his voice thick with accent and deep like a tumbling boulder. “You are mine, girl, and I will have you. If not this day, then another.”

  Aeric’s voice sounded abruptly from behind the dark warrior. “Your life is over, you filthy maggot!”

  The Guard Captain emerged from the crowd, followed by Ryan and Liah. There was a sudden look of recognition on the skeg’s face, and Aeric laughed. “That’s right, skeg. We’ve met before. But things won’t end well for you this time.”

  Beside Addy, Sorsia sank to her knees, her face deathly pale. Addy knelt beside her and put an arm around her shoulder. “Are you all right?”

  “Don’t worry about me, Princess.” Sorsia’s voice was weak, but she forced a smile, her teeth showing red with blood. Addy’s chest tightened.

  Aeric moved to stand between Addy and the skeg, the point of his sword raised toward the barbarian. The skeg paid him no mind, his gaze locking again on Addy. How could he be so calm? He was about to d—

  The
skeg blurted something, his words coming out as a shout. Those around him shifted nervously, their weapons still poised to strike. Then the skeg spoke again. “I am Kergen, the kha’lat. Hear me! I will have what is mine. This I vow to the Light!”

  Then he moved in a blur, morphing somehow into a fluttering mass of darkness. Aeric swung his sword, and the guardsmen gave startled shouts, but the cloud of void-cloth moved unexpectedly, unnaturally, darting this way and that before flowing upward to the shadowed ceiling.

  Then he was gone.

  The guardsmen all looked about in confusion, some even reaching to prod the dark corners of the ceiling with their weapons. Aeric slammed his bloodied sword into its sheath and cursed loudly. “Faege and bloody rot! How did he do that? Spread out and search the barracks! I want him found and bloody flayed for bloody breakfast!”

  Sorsia gave a soft moan, and suddenly she was tipping. Addy caught her in her arms and lowered her to the floor. “Sorsia?” The woman was as pale as a corpse now, her breath coming in shallow gasps. Her hand clutched at her ribs where blood poured between her fingers. Oh, Spirelight, it was bad. “Sorsia! Hang on. We’ll get Erabelle here in a heartbeat.”

  Aeric was instantly at Sorsia’s side, prying away her fingers to inspect the wound that then gushed red. His face paled.

  Sorsia choked, and blood trickled from the corner of her mouth. Her eyes turned desperate, and she seemed to beckon to Addy. Her lips worked to form words, but only a gurgle came out. What was she trying to say? Addy leaned close, her throat tight.

  Sorsia reached up and clutched Addy’s vest in a trembling hand. Their eyes locked, and Addy allowed Sorsia to draw her down until their faces nearly touched. She was trying to whisper something in her ear. No, not a whisper.

  Sorsia’s lips pressed against her cheek.

  Addy’s chest seized. Tears welled in her eyes. No! This couldn’t be happening! In a moment Sorsia would leap to her feet and laugh. And then she would call Addy a foolish little princes! She would!

  But Sorsia did not leap. She did not move. She didn’t laugh or snicker or smirk. She lay silently as the light slowly left her eyes, the pale scar beneath her right eye smoothing until it was nearly invisible. Then her hand dropped softly into Addy’s lap, and the hallway fell silent.

  Aeric reached down and drew Sorsia’s lids over her eyes. Addy took her hand and held it tightly. “It’s my fault,” she whispered.

  Aeric shifted slightly. “It’s no one’s fault.”

  Yet, there on the floor was the pool of blood, with a smear through it where Addy’s foot had slipped. Her heart ached as if a blade had pierced it. “She saved me,” she sobbed. “She saved me.”

  Chapter 19

  Addy jabbed her dagger into the straw dummy, but there was no strength behind her blow. The morning sun overhead beat down on her, but she welcomed that discomfort over the other; the previous night seemed like a terrible dream. And she would give anything to make it just that.

  Liah, Ryan, Karine, and Traizen were practicing at their own dummies, but their thrusts were made with no more fervor than what Addy could muster. If Aeric had been there watching right then, he’d most certainly give them all an earful and set them to climbing the rope for the next hour. Perhaps a little mindless exercise wouldn’t be so bad.

  She jabbed both daggers into the canvas this time, arms feeling like they were made of water, weak and tired. Not a wink more sleep came last night, a small wonder after having who knows how many skeg try to kill her. Or take her. There had been plenty of tears, however.

  In went the daggers again, jabbing into the canvas with a dull shik, and abruptly, blood shot forth and spattered onto her arms. For a heartbeat, she gaped, and then the blood was gone, all in her mind. She shut her eyes and swallowed hard. Get a hold of yourself, Addy. Think of something pleasant. But with her eyes closed, all she could see was that pool of blood on the floor, a boot-streak smeared through it, and Sorsia, her eyes empty and blood running from her mouth.

  Aeric was absent from the morning drills. He had made a brief appearance when they had first begun, just long enough to bark a few instructions. He had seemed even more preoccupied than the rest of them. The weight of burden, perhaps? Did he feel responsible for all those deaths?

  In total, seventeen guardsmen—including Sorsia—had been killed, a number neither the barracks nor the town as a whole could afford. Aeric had been livid about that report, especially when it was followed up with word that only five skeg corpses had been found. Just five skeg killed! And that number was a cerFaegey; skeg never bothered to retrieve their fallen, according to what she’d heard muttered in the hallways that morning. And to top it all off, it was said that maybe ten skeg in total had attacked the barracks in the first place.

  Beside her, Ryan suddenly roared, his face—adorned with that fresh cut on his forehead—flushed red, his sword thrusts coming furiously. “Cursed skeg! Cursed, bloody skeg!”

  A shiver ran up Addy’s spine. “I’m sorry,” Addy muttered.

  Ryan paused, his scowl smoothing only a little. “Don’t apologize.” His words were flat, though, sounding just short of an order. “The skeg do what they do because they are animals. You can’t blame the canth for killing the bear. They’re not evil for it. It’s just the way it is.”

  “If I hadn’t gone to Old Town—”

  Ryan turned to face her, his scowl deepening again. “And if I had stayed with you . . .” Then his scowl faded altogether, and his shoulders slumped. “Do you see what I mean? It’s all chance! We could do nothing but stay in our beds our entire lives, and the outcome would be the same. We’re all just ore carts stuck on a one-way track.”

  Addy studied him closely, her daggers dropping to her sides. “I don’t believe that. If we have no choice, then what is the purpose of life? Why go on living?”

  “Rot me, if I know. Entertainment for the Lord of the bloody Light?” His curse made Addy cringe a little, but he had a right to be angry. Spirelight, she was angry!

  Aeric appeared in the yard, still wearing his blood-stained leather vest and shirt, his hair disheveled. He wouldn’t have slept last night; he would have been scouring the halls with the other guardsmen, looking for that horrible skeg. His face was grim now, even more than usual. “Karine,” he called. He sounded frustrated and tired, voice like gravel.

  What was happening? Why call for Karine and not the rest of them? Had she done something wrong?

  The golden-haired woman turned from her training dummy with a confused look on her face. She had no idea what this was about either. When Aeric motioned her to follow, she gave Addy and the others a quick, questioning glance before finally sheathing her short sword and setting after him at a jog.

  The other three all watched, bewildered, as Karine left, but they said nothing. They were all in the dark, it seemed.

  Addy frowned. “Is she in trouble?”

  Ryan eyed the doorway the two had just disappeared through. “I don’t know.” Then he hesitated, eyes narrowing. “But I know a way we can find out. Follow me.”

  Ryan broke into a jog toward the doorway. Liah and Traizen turned back to their training with heads shaking slowly. Weren’t they at all curious? If Karine was in trouble, Addy had to help her! She had done nothing wrong!

  Sheathing her daggers at her hips, Addy ran from the training yard. There was no sense in staying anyway. Poking absently at straw all day was accomplishing nothing.

  Ryan led the way out of the barracks by the front door, his path taking them through the courtyard and around the main building until they came to the northeast corner. Here, he crouched and motioned for her to do the same. Sneaking about like this seemed wrong somehow, but she hadn’t come this far to learn nothing. What was the punishment for what they were doing? What were they doing?

  They came to an arrow-slit window where voices emanated from within. It was Phineus and Mayor Aldis, and they were speaking in worried tones. “It’s . . . a little too early to tell .
. . Mayor.” That was Phineus. “The investigation will take . . . several days, I should think.”

  The mayor’s voice answered, tinged with agitation. “What questions are they asking?”

  Phineus stammered in his usual way as if searching for the proper words before speaking. “It would seem the . . . question on most minds is how . . . the skeg got inside the outer walls without raising an alarm. Where were the lookouts, if they were not sleeping?”

  That was a good question. Weren’t there supposed to be men watching from the towers at all times? If there had been, why hadn’t they seen the attack earlier and sounded an alarm then?

  The mayor heaved a sigh. “Any popular theories?”

  Phineus cleared his throat. “As one would expect . . . most believe . . . someone . . . simply fell asleep at their post.”

  “Good,” the mayor replied.

  Addy’s mouth dropped open. Good? Ryan looked just as shocked, his eyebrows drawn down in a deep scowl. How could it be good that someone fell asleep at his post?

  A door creaked, and Phineus cut off what he had started to say.

  “Karine, my darling!” Mayor Aldis sounded cheerful. He could have been a completely different person. “I am so relieved you are unharmed.”

  “I’m well, father.” Karine’s reply was flat. There really was no love lost between those two. “There were not many attackers, and my training has gone well.”

  There came a sound like hands clasping in a handshake, followed by Aeric’s voice. “Mayor.” His tone was all business. “The dead on both sides have been collected. The final toll is seven dead invaders and seventeen guardsmen. And one guardsman still missing.”

  “Missing?” The mayor sounded incredulous.

  “Guardsman Tal Vlasken.” There was a hint of contempt in Aeric’s voice. “He was manning the west watchtower, and it’s likely that’s where they got in.”

  There was a pause, and a shift of clothing. “Could he be dead?” The mayor sounded concerned now. Not a single mention of the seventeen dead, but this Tal Vlasken was a sudden cause for worry?