The Elder Mother (Riftkeepers Book 4)

by Carrie Whitethorne

  “Saved lives?” I asked, curious.

  “Well, yeah,” she said, wiping down the silver worktop. “I wouldn’t be here now if Elian hadn’t found me. I was a regular here, but had a relapse. When I hadn’t been in for two weeks, he came and found me, got me to a hospital. If he hadn’t, I’d have died. He’s done that for a lot of us. I suppose you’ve done the same in your work.”

  I nodded. I didn’t, though. I did nothing of the sort. I was a hunter. A killer. I supposed I saved lives by default, but I was by no means the hero Elian appeared to be. Out of curiosity, I felt her out. She brimmed with confidence and gratitude. It was refreshing to find someone who could feel such positive emotions with her obviously troubled history.

  I was hauled from my thoughts by a clatter and startled, looking round to see Deb placing a tray on the worktop at my side.

  “Pop them on there when they’re washed, then straight into the oven.”

  I nodded again. “You’re even quieter than he is,” she remarked, pulling several loaves of bread from a cupboard, and taking them out into the dining room.

  She hurried back into the kitchen and began loading all the utensils we’d used into another appliance. “We’ll leave this lot washing and have a cuppa while we wait for that lot cooking; then they’ll be getting here. Just shove that on the top shelf in the oven. Watch, it blasts you when you open the door.”

  Deb and I were finishing our tea when Elian came back with another man. He was unusually tall, with sandy hair and kind blue eyes. “Bez, this is Seren. Seren, this is Bez. He’s another volunteer. Seren is working with me for a few weeks,” he explained as he introduced us.

  I smiled as he gave an awkward nod and went to pour himself a drink.

  Elian smirked over at Deb and she chuckled. “Poor lad. The girls give him hell for it, too.”

  “Who’s in today?” Elian asked, taking a seat beside me.

  “Tara, Lanie, and Liv. I’ll have Lanie down here with me,” Deb told him, draining her mug. “Where would you prefer: upstairs sorting bathrooms, laundry, or down here?” she asked me as she left the table.

  Two young girls came into the dining room just then, shrugging out of jackets.

  “Umm, I don’t know. Bathrooms?” I asked, having no idea what to do with laundry.

  Elian nodded and said, “Okay, I’ll be up on the top floor in the offices, so if you need anything, come and find me. That okay, Deb? Morning ladies!”

  “Aye, Liv! You’re upstairs with Seren!” she called, heading back into the kitchen.

  “What do we do?” I asked as we arrived on the first floor.

  “Clean up after them,” she said, not sounding too enthusiastic at the prospect. “They’ll eat, come up here for a wash, and probably go to bed for a couple of hours. We clean the bathrooms down and take their towels to the wash. They usually do a good job of cleaning for themselves, but we have to disinfect, just in case.”

  She was a pretty little thing, no older than eighteen. I wondered how anyone so young could need these services.

  “You with the social?” she asked, opening a cupboard and handing me a cloth and bottle of strong smelling liquid.

  “No, I look for missing people,” I explained, wondering what the social was. “What brought you here?”

  Her face heated, and she looked away as she closed and locked the cupboard. “I, uh…I ran away from home and met someone. He…hurt me. Made me work for him. Bez found me and brought me here. Elian took me home.”

  I didn’t say anything. Instead I felt for her. Shame was the dominating emotion. I found that odd. This girl was also incredibly self-conscious. I could feel her anxiety build as she looked my way.

  “So, you just came here for work?” she asked.

  “No, it’s my day off,” I answered with a broad smile. “I’m here because I want to be. Someone hurt me once, too. Now I try to help others. Today, that means preparing their breakfasts and cleaning their bathrooms. Tomorrow, it’ll be looking for missing people.”

  The girl brightened, then, and became quite talkative.

  When we had arranged the bathrooms, laid out towels and toiletries, we went back to the dining area. The room was packed with people, far more than there was seating for. I leaned against the wall and took them all in. Some were obviously unwell: gaunt, pallid, exhausted, huddled over plates of food, or cradling mugs of steaming tea or coffee. They reminded me of the people we had left in that awful house.

  Others were healthy enough in appearance, just untidy, the women looking particularly careworn. I felt for them and felt precisely the mix of emotions I was expecting: despair, sadness, fear.

  One stood out and I focused, trying to single them out. I found her in the opposite corner to me, shrinking back into the wall, terrified every time someone walked by. I crossed the room and went to her.

  “Hello,” I said quietly, stopping a few paces away so as not to intimidate her further. “My name is Seren. Have you had some breakfast?”

  She glared at me wide-eyed and shook her head.

  “Would you like me to get you something and we’ll find somewhere quieter for you to eat?”

  She glanced around the room before meeting my eyes and nodding.

  I left her to fill a plate with sausages, bacon, a bread roll, the strange lumpy orange food, and mushrooms, then moved to the door. I smiled over to her and tilted my head, and she followed, allowing me to lead her upstairs. I remembered Elian saying he was working on the top floor, and I planned to find him.

  “It’s very quiet up here,” I said as I reached the top of the staircase. She didn’t respond, and I listened for signs of Elian.

  He was in the room closest to me, and I let myself in. “Elian, I’ve brought someone up here to eat where it’s quiet. Would you mind if we had a few minutes?” I widened my eyes as a spoke, hoping he would understand.

  “Yeah, let me know when the room’s free,” he said cheerfully. I didn’t hear him go down the stairs.

  The girl edged inside and sat herself in a chair as I handed her the plate and sat on the floor by the door. I continued to monitor her emotions as she ate. This level of fear was extraordinary. She was in a safe place, surrounded by people who wished to help her, not cause her harm. The emotions, the turmoil this girl was feeling was familiar. This was what I’d felt at the steelworks. This was diluted, but fundamentally, it was the same.

  There was a knock on the door and the girl physically jumped in fright. I opened it a crack to see Liv with a mug of tea and glass of water. “Thanks,” I whispered, reaching up to take them. “I’ll be down to help soon.”

  She didn’t speak, but nodded, smiled, and left.

  “That was just Liv. She brought you some tea and water.” I knelt and reached to place them on the desk, then leaned back against the radiator.

  The girl looked at me for a long moment, chewing a mouthful of her breakfast, then reached for the water. “Thanks.” Her small, wobbling voice barely carried in the silent room.

  As she ate, she seemed to relax, so I braved a question. “What’s your name?”

  She paused, her hand momentarily suspended above her plate, as though measuring her response. “Emily,” she answered, turning back to her meal.

  “That’s a nice name. Where is your family, Emily?”

  Her eyes flicked to me, then down to her plate. “At home.”

  “Do you want to go home?” I asked. “We can take you there if you want us to.”

  She shook her head, her eyes filling with tears. “I…I can’t. He’ll find me. I…”

  He? I tilted my head to the side. “It’s okay. You don’t have to talk about it. You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to do. I’m here to help. Anything you need, I can help.”

  I didn’t dare move closer to her. I didn’t want to scare her any more than she already was, but I felt compelled to comfort her. She was so young and frightened. She didn’t belong there. She should have been safe with her family,
not terrified among strangers.

  “He said he’d kill them if I went back. I was supposed to come straight here, not home…I can’t go home,” she said through her tears. “I wasn’t supposed to be there. I lied to my mum and went to a…a club…with my friends. He was there when we got there, like he was waiting for them, and… it was weird. He told me to follow him, and I did. We all did…”

  My blood ran cold. I could barely speak for the lump in my throat. “Who is he?” I choked. She didn’t seem to register my discomfort.

  “He’s called…Kern…”

  I closed my eyes and blew out a steadying breath. “What did he do to you, Emily?”

  “He…he said I was…he had those monsters hold us down, and he…he said there’d be babies…”

  It was an effort not to leap to my feet and scream my fury. Him!

  “Okay. Okay, you don’t need to say any more. I’m going to help you, Emily. I’ll keep you safe, I promise. Now, I need to speak to my friend; the man who was here when we came up, and I need you to trust me. Can you do that?”

  She nodded, wiping her eyes on her sleeve.

  “I won’t be long. Try to finish your breakfast. I’m not far away.”

  I left her there and went to find Elian. As I closed the office door, I heard him whisper, “I’m next door.”

  “Did you hear all of that?” I asked, stepping into the room and closing the door.

  “Yeah. I heard. But it doesn’t make sense. How do you think she got away?”

  “You already know the answer. He let her go so she could find us. But she can’t go back, Elian.”

  He looked out of the window. “He wants her to lead us to him.”

  “We know where they are, what they are doing. We’ll find the entrance ourselves. She needs to be kept safe. I will not use her. That is what he wants.”

  “No, he’ll kill her. Deb will keep her here, keep her safe. We’re being set up, but we have to go after him. We don’t have any other option.”

  “Today, Elian. This is out of hand.”

  Eighteen

  Seren

  He parked the car closer to the warehouses, but didn’t get out. Instead, he turned to me and said, “I don’t want you to overload yourself. If we don’t get in, we don’t get in. We can try again tomorrow.”

  I shook my head. “No, Elian. I have to find him.”

  He ground his teeth in frustration and looked back out toward the steelworks. “Look”—he paused, fingering a dagger—“you’re no good on your knees out there. Take it slowly. We know where they are. We know they’re holding people down there. They won’t be going anywhere.”

  “Fine. We’ll walk around that area and check inside the building,” I sighed as he opened his door. “The entrance is probably in there.”

  “None of this is going to help much when you get in there and find yourself in the middle of that shit, though, is it?” he closed the door with considerable force and leaned on the bonnet.

  I wasn’t sure what he wanted me to do. I couldn’t wait any longer. Seeing how terrified that poor girl had been gave me the push I’d needed. His frustration was confusing. I shared his concern, but I had to do something. This was taking too long, and I was letting people down.

  I left the car and walked to the gap in the fence, expecting him to follow. I didn’t look back.

  It wasn’t until I ducked under the fence and glanced back that I realised Elian wasn’t there. Instinctively, I checked the sky to see he’d perched himself on top of the fence and was looking down at me with his head tilted.

  “So, you’re leaving me on my own? Charming,” I muttered, striding away.

  He let out a caw, landing on my shoulder and rubbed his beak against my cheek.

  “I’m not mad. I’m…you were the one who got angry, Elian.” I sighed. “Change back so I can see your face.”

  He fluffed out his feathers and shifted.

  “What’s this dust?” I asked, brushing it from my shoulder.

  “No idea. Some sort of residual magic, I think,” he said. “I’m not angry, Seren. I’m worried for you. I don’t want you to push yourself too far and get hurt.”

  I smiled up at him. “I won’t. That isn’t going to happen.”

  “You don’t know that,” he muttered, fiddling with a dagger at his hip.

  “Let’s find the way in first, then worry about the rest,” I said.

  We avoided the area that had caused me such difficulty before, and went directly into the old building. Old girders littered the floor, huge holding vats and the remnants of production lines left to rot filled the floorspace of the decrepit building, ghosts of a once vibrant and prosperous industrial past. The only sound was our feet crunching on the filthy floor as we moved cautiously into the heart of the room.

  The space was dimly lit by thin shafts of light that made their way in through the broken roof and grime smeared windows.

  “What are we looking for?” I asked in a whisper.

  Elian shrugged and kept going, listening for movement, looking for signs of their presence.

  After a thorough look around, I became frustrated. “There’s nothing here!”

  “There will be if you don’t keep your voice down!” he hissed.

  “Isn’t that the point?” I asked, heading back over to him. “Don’t we want them to show themselves?

  “Yes, but I don’t want to be taken by surprise. I’d rather be the one doing the surprising, Seren,” he said flatly, scratching the side of his head with his dagger.

  “What difference does it make? My power wipes them out in seconds.”

  He shook his head. “I don’t like the idea of being at The Mother’s mercy. I can get myself out of just about anything, if I approach it properly.”

  “This is ridiculous. She isn’t going to let any harm come to us.”

  “You,” he corrected. “She won’t let any harm come to you.”

  At least he’s acknowledging her existence, I thought as I looked at him sadly.

  I steered the conversation back to the task before us. “Okay, so there’s no sign of an entrance here. Do we check outside? Check other areas of the building? Look along the riverbank?”

  He shook his head and frowned.

  “What?” I asked in exasperation.

  “Feel for them. I’m sure there’s someone here,” he said quietly.

  There was. I turned in the direction the emotions were coming from and said, “Two of them, I think. Angry. I can’t tell what they are…over there.”

  I pointed to the rear of the room, the area obscured by old, rusting vats. When I turned to Elian, I was looking at…myself. He shifted to look like me?

  “What are you doing?” I whispered, pulling the dagger he’d given me from my back pocket.

  “Confusing them,” Elian said. It could work. I was confused already.

  Footsteps drew our attention and I stepped closer to him and giggled.

  “What?” he asked in a harsh whisper.

  “Nothing, nothing at all,” I said as two men came into view. “I think you need to change into someone bigger.”

  They were huge, hulking forms of men. Pale-skinned, cropped black hair. Elian laughed quietly. “What are they?”

  “They feel like Destroyers. About three steps up the ladder from Daeva,” I explained, flashing them a welcoming grin. “Hello.”

  The larger of the two growled, shifting its glare from me, to Elian, and back in confusion.

  “Grunts, then?” Elian asked, looking the smaller up and down.

  “Pretty much. Not particularly bright. Too big and slow to hit a moving target.” I spoke openly, my voice clear. If they rushed us, they were at the disadvantage.

  Elian sniggered.

  I palmed my dagger and winked at the big one. “Where’s your master?” I asked, looking to the smaller one as they stopped a few feet away.

  He spat on the ground in answer.

  “Well,” Elian remarked, glancin
g to me, “he’s charming.”

  I stepped forward, angling myself between them and Elian to give the impression that he was me. They took the bait, instantly focusing on him.

  “Ah,” I said, flipping the dagger. “You want her, you go through me.”

  The bigger one lurched forward with a snarl, taking a swipe at me with his huge, balled fist. I dodged his attack with a graceful spinning step, slashing his side with my dagger as I moved behind him. He howled in pain, the silver dagger slicing through his thin clothing and burning into the flesh just above his hip. He turned on me, growling low in his throat, then lunged.

  With a lopsided smirk, I backed away. “I’ll go slowly. Give you a chance to keep up.”

  Flicking my eyes to Elian, I noticed the smaller one advancing on him and ducked to my left as the beast stalking me lunged again.

  I shook my head, clicking my tongue. “Your master will be disappointed when I deliver him your head.”

  The mention of Kern’s displeasure goaded the beast into a rage. He began to tremble with fury, roaring at me as I backed away. I had to get back to Elian.

  The smaller of the two had backed him further into the room, which meant he was further from me. With one last look over the demon at my front, I turned and bolted for them, the larger one giving chase. His thundering steps followed close behind as I closed the space between us. Elian saw me coming, cocking his head as he considered what I planned to do.

  It cost him. His demon lurched forward, grasping him around the throat, its tight grip choking him. I sped toward them, dagger gripped tightly, and leapt. Using my left hand, I pushed myself up the back of the creature and swung with my right sinking my blade into his neck. He roared in pain, dropping Elian to the ground and I sprang away, leaving the blade in its back, landing awkwardly off to my left.

  I was still too far from Elian.

  With both prowling toward me, I had to think quickly. Wondering why The Mother hadn’t influenced me, I looked wildly around the room for a weapon. Before my eyes, a small glint of silver flashed and struck the bigger demon in the side of the head. It dropped to the ground instantly, incurring the wrath of its companion. He took off with surprising speed, racing for Elian.