Soul of the Blade

by Brenda J. Pierson

  Aeo had a hunch about that, but he was too terrified it might be true to speak it.

  He may as well have said something, because Dragana heard him. “Let’s hope that isn’t the case. An entire army of willing -taken would be even worse than losing this war altogether.”

  Too bad Raeb isn’t here. I’ll bet he’d have some insight into all this.

  “Well, he isn’t here. Deal with it.”

  Dragana …

  “No. We are not having this conversation again.”

  And that was as far as he’d gotten in days. After the first few disastrous attempts at salving Dragana’s pain, she’d refused to even let Aeo mention what had happened. Saying Raeb’s name was enough to make her retreat into her thoughts for hours on end, pointedly ignoring Aeo. No matter how subtle or sneaky he was, Dragana would not discuss it.

  You can’t stay mad at him forever.

  “Watch me.”

  Aeo sighed. This isn’t going the way I’d hoped.

  “I know,” Dragana said. Her voice was more weary than angry. “And I know you’re just trying to help. But I can’t accept what Raeb did.” Tears choked her voice.

  Even if it wasn’t his fault?

  She didn’t reply for several minutes. “It was just too close,” she said, more to herself than to Aeo. She stopped speaking then, but Aeo heard her final thought. I almost lost you.

  Dragana flushed and turned away. She focused on the empty landscape before them. Aeo could feel just how desperately she wished he hadn’t read that.

  Dragana …

  She shook her head. “No. I can’t … we can’t go there.” They suffered through an awkward pause until Dragana cleared her throat. “Let’s just figure out what’s going on here.”

  After that, they kept to themselves and continued to the frontlines. Dragana’s footsteps remained the only thing breaking the monotony of the snow’s surface. Aeo couldn’t see any evidence of life, human or animal, anywhere. Soon they were catching sights of where the outlying camp had stood, but nothing remained.

  Once they arrived at the camp proper, Dragana stood on top of a small hill and drew Aeo from his sheath. Together, they stared in silence.

  Nothing. Not a soul in sight. No tents, weapons, pennants, or corpses. There was just a perfect blanket of snow stretching all the way to the river. And on the Halkronian side of the river, the same. Just snow and emptiness, as if they were the last living beings to walk the earth.

  It was several minutes before Aeo found his voice. What happened?

  Dragana didn’t reply. She simply stared, dumbfounded.

  Arata couldn’t have lost—we’d have heard something by now. Run into a Halkronian occupation. Something.

  “They couldn’t have won, either,” she whispered.

  More heartbeats slipped away in silence.

  So what is going on?

  Dragana trudged through the snow and frozen mud beneath. Aeo fancied he could smell smoke still hanging in the air, but in reality what he sensed was something even darker.

  There’s still the taint of Entana in the air, Aeo said. It’s like they left a stain on the land.

  “How many of the monsters had to have been here to leave something like that?”

  Hundreds. Thousands.

  Dragana shifted her weight. “Could the war have been going that badly?”

  It must have. Why else would there have been so many Entana here?

  Dragana’s heartbeat skyrocketed, and her thoughts started whirling. Aeo couldn’t keep up with them, but the flashes he saw were disturbing enough.

  You think the Mage General was harvesting the wounded and breeding -taken for something other than the war?

  He didn’t have to ask the question—he knew that’s what she thought as well as he knew he agreed with it. But the concept was so terrifying he couldn’t leave it unspoken, like a monster left unmentioned was far more frightening than one that had been seen and discussed in full light.

  “He could have built his own personal army out of this,” she continued, “with no fear, no pain … and no morals.”

  He saw where she was going. He didn’t like it at all, mostly because it made complete sense. A coup?

  “The Mage General was in charge of all the -taken in the army. What if he started realizing just how powerful that made him? When I talked to him before he said the -taken were the only things keeping Arata from losing the war. But if the war was won, and the Mage General found himself with thousands of -taken soldiers waiting for his command …”

  Aeo was nodding along with everything Dragana said. The Mage General had never been one to let a chance to seize power pass him by. He would have seen the -taken soldiers as an opportunity to take the kingdom in name as well as authority. He may have even lectured Aeo on a similar tactic when he’d been conditioning him.

  He’s the kind of man to do something devious like this, he agreed.

  “But devious like what? Breed -taken to take over the kingdom, or start a war to hide the fact he was doing it?”

  Aeo didn’t reply right away. He had assassinated plenty of men with ambitions to thrones or titles or lands. Plotting to start a war just to raise up soldiers loyal to them was something several of these men had tried. One woman, of all people, had almost succeeded.

  “It wouldn’t make sense for the Mage General to do all this and then rely on -taken,” Dragana said. “A plan like that hinging on an unknown like the Entana would be too easy to foil.”

  Then maybe it wasn’t the Mage General’s plan after all, Aeo said. Shivers ran through his soul at the thought. Maybe the Entana were using him somehow, and this was all their idea.

  “But what would the Entana want with their own army?”

  They were both silent for many long, terrifying moments. The voice of a months-dead -taken floated through their minds. Even now, we fight a battle to bring more into the service of the Entana. Our numbers will swell, and soon spread the Entana to the entire world. Then we will come for you.

  Neither had to say a word. They understood.

  Where do we go? Aeo asked.

  “Wherever the Mage General went. Where he goes, his army goes.”

  Karim. He already has Arata by the balls, so it makes sense for them to start there.

  “And if they succeed, they’ll have a perfect place from which to strike at the rest of the kingdoms.”

  Dragana wasted no time. She turned away from the empty battlefield and set a brisk pace to the northeast.

  All Aeo could do was hope they got to the capital before the Entana took over Arata, and then the world.

  Raeb paced. One, two, three, four, five steps. Wall. Turn. One, two, three, four, five steps. Wall. Turn.

  Days had passed since the Keeper of Secrets had hijacked Saydee’s mind again. He’d been right—the mages were indeed on their way. And running didn’t help. Even if he hadn’t been burdened with Saydee’s unconscious body, he never would have escaped. He was lost in a labyrinth of corridors and labs.

  But the Keeper of Secrets had been wrong, too. The mages hadn’t killed them. It looked like they were going to, at first, but then they’d been ordered to wait. So they’d thrown Raeb and Saydee into this bedroom prison—the same tiny room where Saydee had been imprisoned and beaten a thousand times over. Their captors didn’t stop to search them, or even remove their weapons. They’d just shoved them in here and left them to wait. But to wait for what?

  When Saydee had woken, she’d panicked. It had taken Raeb hours to calm her down, to convince her Ashwinn was gone and he would protect her. She was so skittish she wouldn’t sit still for him to check her Entana eyes. It had taken many covert stares to assure himself she hadn’t been fully -taken by that last possession. She was still sane, as best as could be expected in her current state, but it had been a close call. Saydee’s pupils were almost completely elongated, peridot-green, and the irises were stormy gray.

  Even now, days later, Saydee was huddled in the
corner like a rabbit with nowhere else to run. She was making herself as small as possible until the wolf came to devour her. She still wouldn’t let him touch her. Nothing he could say would calm her down, so Raeb resorted to pacing.

  The only good thing was the discovery he’d made. During one of his long, fruitless searches for an escape he’d found a small stronghold built into the wall. It had taken a fair amount of Sunray’s magic and a lot of prying to force it open, but inside lay the treasure they’d come for.

  Even now, the thick report lay on the bed. Raeb read the title one more time: Infection or enhancement? Modifying the mage's response to an Entana cohabitation to benefit the host organism. It was exactly what they’d hoped to find—Ashwinn’s unedited research, detailing every little tidbit he’d learned about the Entana.

  A lot of good it did him, though. No matter how many times he’d tried to read it, he couldn’t make sense of the thing. Even if there was a way to strengthen Saydee’s connection to the Entana in there, Raeb wouldn’t ever be able to find it.

  It had been close to four days, he thought. Maybe five. It was hard to tell in this windowless cell. The mages kept them fed—barely—and clean—almost—but Raeb was starting to unravel. He’d never enjoyed small spaces. And he hated to admit it, but he’d rather be alone than have to deal with Saydee’s traumatized silence. It hurt to look at her. He knew that somewhere deep inside she was grateful for his presence, but he found himself wishing to get away from her more and more.

  Raeb paused in his pacing. Someone was coming. He could hear their muffled footsteps and feel the press of whatever magic they used to unlock the doors. Whether from lack of food or motivation, he’d lost the energy to keep trying to escape days ago. He retreated to the far corner and stood in front of Saydee while the mages deposited their meager meals.

  This time, though, no one entered with food. The door swung wide open, but nobody entered. Raeb stared into the lab—it seemed empty, but he knew better—and wondered what kind of trick this was.

  “To hell with this.” He stepped forward. Trying to think around these twisted bastards wouldn’t get him anywhere. Going out there would.

  The lab seemed expansive and painfully bright after his confinement in the cramped, semi-dark bedroom. A handful of steps into the room were enough to make his muscles tremble with weariness. That did not bode well for options like daring escapes.

  Besides him and Saydee, who had kept close to his heels, there was only one other person present. A young man, his features hardened by responsibility and harshness, stared at them with an unsettling sense of excitement. A massive sheath hung from his belt, seeming out of place against his plain magician’s tunic.

  Raeb and the man stared at each other. He’d expected some kind of reaction to his Entana eyes. Most people cringed, or backed up, or fled from Raeb’s gaze. This man didn’t show the slightest hint of fear. There wasn’t even surprise in his expression.

  The man’s eyes slid from his to the girl cowering behind Raeb. His smile quirked at the corner. “Saydee,” he purred. “My most successful test, and my favorite assistant. I’ve missed having you beside me.”

  Raeb looked from the demented, amused expression on the man’s face to Saydee’s pale, terrified one. It wasn’t hard to figure out who this was. “Ashwinn.”

  He gave an exaggerated bow. “I’d say I’m pleased to meet you, but discovering you skulking through my laboratory isn’t the most auspicious of meetings.”

  “Being confronted by a sadistic torturer who should be long dead doesn’t count so well in my book, either.”

  “This coming from a two hundred year old coward who doesn’t understand the concepts of duty or loyalty to his masters.”

  Raeb’s mind went blank. How did the man know about him? He tried not to let his surprise or sudden fear show, but Ashwinn laughed.

  “We are both servants of the Entana. You’d be surprised how often our paths have crossed over the years.”

  Ashwinn turned away from him, focusing a predatory gaze on Saydee. He stalked toward her. Saydee whimpered and drew back, but that only spurred him on.

  Raeb stepped in Ashwinn’s way, raising Sunray. The mage laughed at him. “You? Being chivalrous?”

  “Don’t touch her,” Raeb growled through clenched teeth.

  Ashwinn leaned in, ignoring the blade at his throat. “You can’t stop me.”

  He struck out with a heavy backhand to Raeb’s head. Raeb stumbled to the side, and Ashwinn followed his first strike with a vicious kick. Raeb tumbled to the ground, his head spinning and body aching.

  He saw a flash of ugliness in Ashwinn’s eyes as he reached out and grabbed the girl. He held her uncomfortably close, one hand pressing her against him, the other grabbing her chin and forcing her to look up at him. “Well, my dear, it looks like your time is just about up.” He chuckled. “One more visitation from the Entana and I fear you’ll be done for.”

  Raeb’s rage flared even as icy terror clenched his heart. He wasn’t sure which angered him more—Ashwinn’s violation of Saydee, or the impending doom of her becoming fully -taken. All he knew was he was staggering to his feet, his hand flying to the sword at his side. Already he was picturing Ashwinn’s head rolling to the floor.

  He tugged at the hilt of his sword, but the blade didn’t pull free. He yanked harder, but was rewarded with only the mage’s twisted laughter.

  “Tsk tsk, Raeb,” he said. His eyes flashed from full brown to Entana green and back so quickly Raeb feared he’d imagined it. “I won’t let this habit of threatening me slide forever, you know. I may begin to see it as a reason to let the Entana loose in your mind once and for all.”

  Raeb went numb. His hand slipped from the hilt, and he stood in complete shock.

  The mage grinned. “Recognized me yet?”

  The words fell from Raeb’s lips almost by their own volition. “You’re the Keeper of Secrets.”

  A dizzying wave of hatred gripped him. The Entana may have ruined his life, but this man was the true source of his torment. If it wasn’t for him, Raeb would have died a long time ago, sent into peace by the baenlo poison. But this twisted man had found him, given him Sunray, and proceeded to haunt his every moment for the next two centuries.

  Raeb had despised him before, but now he was beyond that. He was almost numb, in the terrifying way only the purest of righteous hatred could manage. This wasn’t about emotions anymore. It was the simplest, most basic logic in existence. Raeb knew and understood, down to his core, there was only one thing left to do.

  Ashwinn had to die.

  The Entana ambassador seemed to read everything in his face. He laughed, as if genuinely enjoying Raeb’s hatred. “You think you can defeat me?” he asked. He pushed Saydee away. She stumbled, fell backward, and hit her head on a table. She landed in a heap and didn’t move again.

  Raeb’s rage bubbled over, and he screamed a wordless challenge.

  Ashwinn snapped his fingers, and Raeb’s blade was loose in its scabbard. “You want to kill me? Then come try!”

  28

  “By the gods of Taron, Aeo, have you ever seen so many -taken?”

  Dragana was doing her best to seem calm, but Aeo felt the tension in her muscles as if it was his own. It was taking everything in her power to remain in control. If it had been Aeo in that body, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to restrain himself half as well as Dragana was.

  He’d first seen it when they were still hours away from Karim. The roiling cloud of Entana blotted out a huge chunk of the sky. It was as if the Entana were erasing the world, replacing it with a filthy black stain, and they’d begun with the capital of Arata.

  Now they stood at the edge of the forest, looking over the cleared land toward where they knew the gates of Karim stood. The city’s wall was lost beneath the thousands—hundreds of thousands—of Entana tendrils. The air stunk of rot and filth. Even in his worst nightmares, Aeo had never dreamed of anything like this.

  So
this is what the Entana were after. Complete domination.

  Dragana nodded. “Unless we find a way to stop them, every city in the world will end up like this one.”

  Aeo mustered his courage and spoke into the silence of her thoughts. We had a way, with Raeb.

  “Aeo, don’t you think we have bigger issues to deal with right now?” she asked, pointing the Bok’Tarong toward the infested capital.

  It’s the same issue. We have to stop the Entana, and killing -taken won’t get us anywhere. Even if that could slow them down, there are too many of these berserkers. We’d never survive the battle. He gained courage when she didn’t protest. But Raeb was on to something. If we could get to the hive, we can destroy the Entana once and for all. It’s the only way we can take the capital back and stop this from happening to the rest of the world.

  “I’m not going back.”

  He wouldn’t have hurt me. I saw it.

  “That’s not the point.”

  Then what is?

  She was silent. Only her thoughts conveyed her lingering pain.

  Look. I know he hurt you. It was a risk befriending him, and to have him betray that can’t be easy. But he was fighting the compulsion. I saw his face—he was battling whatever was controlling him with every bit of strength he had. He did that because he cares about us.

  Dragana shifted her weight, keeping her eyes locked on the Entana engulfing Karim. Her thoughts were far from the besieged city, though.

  I’m not any better with friendship than you are, Dragana. I’ll bet Raeb and Saydee feel the same. We’re all misfits and outcasts. We’re all meant to fight the Entana. Call it destiny that we got together in the first place, if you want. That destiny might even be to destroy the Entana completely. If we don’t belong together, then where do we belong?

  More silence. He sensed her thinking over his words, feeling the truth in them.

  Both turned their attention back to the capital. Dragana tapped into Aeo’s sight, and they stared at the darkness covering the city.