The Path of Ashes [Omnibus Edition]

by Parker, Brian

  He sighed and sat heavily in his desk chair. “Nicholas is right; we need to think of the safety of everyone in the city. We’ll need time to search for Jade, we have no idea where to begin.”

  “That’s why I’m going to the Seers,” she replied.

  “The Seers?” Nicholas scoffed. “Those crazy old ladies don’t know anything about tracking a kidnapper. The Traxx Guard will go after your granddaughter as soon as we can clear some space around the back exit.”

  The king smiled resignedly. “Thank you, Nicholas. One week. I’ll give the Guard one week to break this siege and send a search party to speak to the Seers—it’s a better place to start than anywhere else we could think to look.”

  “Father, in one week, she could be dead!”

  He attempted to reach for her, but she stepped away from him. Garrett sighed and said, “We can’t just open the gates and charge out into the waiting arms of the entire Vulture army. The Guard will clear some room and—”

  “You are all fools,” Tanya spat. “My daughter—your granddaughter—was kidnapped by something right in front of our eyes.”

  “Yes. About that,” Nicholas intervened once again. “How did the kidnapper slip past your guard, Frederick?”

  Tanya glanced at her lover, who held a cloth full of ice against his bloody forehead. “Ah…erm. He didn’t come past James or I at the front door, so he came from outside.” He paused and then continued, “I think he flew into Homelake—with those mechanical wings—and then climbed the side of the building.”

  “Impossible, that room is six stories off the ground. There’s no way a man could—”

  “He wasn’t a man!” Tanya snapped. “I mean, he was, but he wasn’t like us. He had scales and eyes that glittered in the moonlight like a snake.”

  Nicholas crossed his arms over his chest and thrust his chin accusingly toward Frederick, ignoring Tanya. “And what of you? I placed you on guard of the royal grandchildren because of your skills with the sword. Why didn’t you stop him if you saw him?”

  “I tried. I hit him in the ribs; it should have cleaved him nearly in half, but my sword didn’t even make it past his armor. Then he hit me with a brick.”

  “You know better than to attack the midsection of an armored opponent, Frederick. You’ve been taught better than that.”

  “It was the only opening he gave, so I took it, Captain,” Frederick replied glumly. “The creature held Jade and I wasn’t able to attack low or high. You weren’t there.”

  “You’re right, if I was there, I’d have made sure the exit was blocked before I tried to attack,” Nicholas answered. “I knew placing you on this assignment was a bad idea. You should have thought with your head and not with your heart.”

  “You don’t get to second-guess me about a situation that you weren’t involved in. I did everything I could in the span of a few seconds.”

  “No, Frederick, you’re wrong. I do get to second-guess you. I’m the commander of the Traxx Guard; you failed in your duty and I’m trying to determine why.”

  “Would you two shut up!” Tanya broke in, “I’m not leaving my daughter alone with that thing a moment longer. You can debate who did what after we kill that thing and get Jade back.”

  The Captain of the Traxx Guard looked like he wanted to say more, but instead, he inclined his head to the princess and then shot Frederick a look of disgust. Tanya wondered if the shaky friendship between Nicholas and Frederick had eroded entirely this night. Nicholas could make his life pure misery by assigning him to duties that were necessary, but dreadful—like guarding the sewers.

  Garrett cleared his throat. “Tanya, go to bed. We’ll figure out a way to get a force past the Vultures in the morning.”

  “Father, the longer we wait, the harder it will be to find them.”

  “I’ve been on search parties for missing youth in the middle of the night, Tanya,” the king said, reminding her of the search for her cousins so long ago. “Even if we could get past the Vultures, searchers would likely miss clues in the darkness. I’ve given the Guard one week to clear an opening.”

  “Father, I disagree. I think—” She stopped herself. Arguing with him was pointless. He’d made up his mind that the Vultures were an impenetrable barrier in their way. She would have to do this on her own, without him knowing.

  “But,” Tanya started again, “I understand what you mean. We’ve got to take care of the Vultures first.”

  Frederick’s eyes narrowed as he stared at her. She wouldn’t give up the fight so easily and he knew it. Tanya shook her head slightly, warning him to remain silent.

  “There,” the king bobbed his chin, “We’ll make a plan in the morning and rescue Jade. She’ll have an interesting story to tell her own children one day.”

  “I know you’re trying to cheer me up, but it won’t work. The longer we leave her out there, the higher the odds that she’ll die—like Varan and Caleb. We abandoned them to their fate as well.” She spun on her heel, leaving her father with the sting of her words.

  Behind her, she heard her father let out a frustrated breath before telling Frederick, “Go after her and make sure she doesn’t do something stupid.”

  *****

  “Ready?” Frederick whispered.

  “As ready as I’ll ever be,” Tanya replied.

  He nodded and disappeared into the darkness. She heard several soft thuds as his boots impacted against the wall. Finally, the rope went slack as he unlatched it from his harness somewhere below.

  She turned to Brandt and told her cousin, “Your turn.”

  He nodded wordlessly, wrapping the rope around the carabiner on his harness. He turned and eased himself out, then pushed off, slipping into the black night below like Frederick had.

  Brandt had surprised her and Frederick as they attempted to steal the rope from the town’s supplies. He already had his own bag packed and held several coils of rope out for them. They’d argued quietly about his involvement in their plan, but ultimately the fact that he’d visited the Seers before and knew how to get to them won out. Now their search party equaled three.

  The rope went slack once more and it was her turn to go over the wall and rappel into the unknown below. For all she knew, the Vultures could be waiting for her at the bottom. She took the rope and wrapped it through the ancient metal carabiner twice like Frederick had shown her before his own descent. She’d rappelled with the Guard before, but there’d always been someone who hooked her up, it was the first time that she’d done it herself. She double-checked the direction of the rope through the carabiner, if she passed it through the wrong direction, it would unravel and not arrest her fall.

  Everything seemed to be correct. Tanya grasped the running end of the rope and wrapped it around her side, tucking her fist into the small of her back. She extended her legs and felt the pressure of the rope harness that Frederick had tied dig uncomfortably into her crotch and waist. The tightness of the seat was only slightly reassuring as she stood against Homelake’s wall, thirty feet above the ground. The rope tightened around the carabiner and she breathed a sigh of relief.

  With her free hand, she pulled her pack off the wall and fed the rope tied to it slowly through her hand until it dangled five feet below her. The weight of the pack added to her own and the rope harness dug even deeper into her hips. She grasped the rope that led from her carabiner to the anchor point inside the wall and prepared to rappel to the ground so she could find her daughter.

  Then, she untucked her brake hand from behind her back and felt the oil-slicked rope slide through her gloves as she pushed out with her legs. For a terrifying moment, she was suspended in the air, weightless and then she slammed back into the wall.

  The darkness was disorienting. Tanya had never rappelled at night before, or had a pack dangling below her—and it was always with a dry rope. They’d been forced to soak the rope in oil so they wouldn’t leave a ready-made entry into the city if the Vultures discovered their escape route,
but it added an immense degree of difficulty to the task.

  There was no way to tell how far she’d gone on her initial bound in the darkness. It had been too far, she decided. If she wasn’t careful, she’d end up flipping upside down, which was dangerous enough in the daylight, but she wouldn’t have any way of knowing what to do if that happened in the night.

  Tanya steadied herself for another bound and pushed with her legs against the wall, throwing her brake hand out at the same time. The rope slid through her gloves once again and her feet landed against the wall much sooner than the first time. She repeated the quick bounds until she felt her pack hit the ground, relieving some of the pressure against her waist.

  She kicked out again, pushing off the wall. Her feet brushed against hands as someone grabbed her boots. They guided her to the frozen ground and her Frederick quietly urged her to hurry.

  The rope harness came off after a few tries and she secured it, along with the carabiner, in her pack. They were ready to make a break for the woods surrounding Homelake.

  “We’re about four hundred feet from the tree line,” Frederick whispered into her ear. “Once I light the rope, we’re stuck out here.”

  “Understood.”

  He pulled off his glove and used a rusty old lighter to ignite the oil on the rope. It began to burn brightly, the oil slowly carrying the bright flame up the rope. The three of them shuffled off quietly into the night.

  Behind them, shouts of alarm rang out from defender and attacker alike as the line of fire trailed up the rope along the city’s wall.

  *****

  “Are you sure we’re going the right way?” Tanya asked.

  “No,” her cousin replied truthfully. I’m not sure if we’re going the right way. I’m not sure about what’s around the next bend. It’s been three days since Jade was abducted; I’m not sure about our chances of success at all.

  Instead of voicing his thoughts, Brandt restated what he’d told them several times, “I remember an old world bridge just before a town at the base of the trail to the Valley Lodge. It took us two days to get to the town when I went with the king—and we were on horseback. Once we got to the town, we had to leave them because the path was too treacherous.”

  Tanya sighed resignedly. “Okay, I just thought we were closer to them than this.”

  Brandt searched his memories, but couldn’t find any other useful information. “That merchant we ran into said if we keep traveling down the road we’re on, we’d find the town of Creede just after a river crossing with an intact bridge. That’s got to be the town from my memories.”

  “So you don’t really know how far it is to Creede then?” Frederick asked, stomping hard on the shallow layer of snow that covered the road.

  “We’re going about the same speed—maybe faster—than we did back then. Uncle Garrett went in the dead of winter and the horses had a hard time with snowdrifts.”

  “So…are we going the right way?” Tanya repeated.

  “I don’t know,” he threw up his hands, finally admitting the truth. “It was a long time ago, Tanya.”

  “Oh, gods. What if we’re lost?” she asked.

  “I swear, Brandt, if you led us astray and we’ve lost three days, I’ll rip you to shreds.”

  “You can’t talk to me like that,” Brandt countered. “I’m a Traxx.”

  “And I’m a really mean asshole when it comes to people messing with my children, regardless of who they are. And, the princess, is my charge, so I’d be within the Code of the Guard to defend her.”

  Brandt started to debate the truthfulness of his statement, but decided against it. Arguing with the two of them wasn’t helpful. He understood their frustration; their daughter was missing. He could cut the Guard a little slack. “Look guys, let’s just get to this Creede place and ask around. At the very least, we’re still going west.”

  They both grumbled unintelligibly and he put his head down, concentrating on putting one foot in front of the other. The wind swept off the plains behind them, driving them forward, which was better than the alternative. The snow had even abated, so it was just cold and windy, instead of cold, windy and wet.

  The knot in his stomach made Brandt wish for the hundredth time they would have had the time to properly provision themselves before sneaking out of The Keep. They’d been fighting against the coming morning and didn’t want to lose an entire day waiting for the next night. Normally, the small villages and hamlets along the way could have offered some assistance, but the ones they’d ran across had all been ransacked or burned by the Vulture army. Between the three of them, all they’d been able to scrounge up before they left was a loaf of bread and a small wheel of cheese.

  The hours passed in mind-numbing boredom as they walked endlessly towards their presumed destination. Brandt’s mind wandered and he often found himself falling behind the two. Once, he had to run to catch up to them. By gods, they’d just leave me out here. It was enough to convince him to not become separated from his cousin and her protector.

  They came around a bend in the road where it curved around a finger coming down off the mountains. “Hold on,” Frederick said, causing Brandt to stop. “What’s that up ahead?”

  The younger man squinted against the glare of the snow. “Is that the bridge?” He shielded his eyes with his hand. “Yes! That’s it. The town is about a mile or so after the bridge. We’ll be able to get final instructions about how to get to the lodge from the people there.”

  Before long, they shuffled past the bridge, dipping into their nearly depleted energy reserves for the final push into town. If they didn’t get some real food soon, they weren’t going to be able to go much farther.

  A pair of armed men met them at the road when they were about a quarter of a mile from Creede. In the distance, workers emplaced long tree trunks into pits and secured them to one another before other laborers buried the base. They were building a wall around the town.

  “What business do you have, travelers?”

  “We’re going to the Valley Lodge,” Tanya replied.

  “Goin’ to see the witches, eh?” the guard replied casually.

  “We…ah, yes. The Seers have helped my family before and we need their advice again.”

  “What do you have as payment for them?” the second guard asked, staring intently at Brandt’s backpack. The attention made the young man feel uncomfortable, so he shifted his stance, putting his body between him and the man.

  “We don’t have anything of value,” Tanya admitted. “We were forced to leave Homelake quickly and only had time to grab a few things.”

  “Homelake?” the two guards asked in unison.

  “Yeah,” Frederick joined in. “We’ve been under siege for a long time and we’re coming to the Seers for help.”

  Brandt nodded his head. They’d decided that they would keep their identities and the real nature of their quest a secret from everyone except the Seers. They didn’t know much about anyone outside of their city and had no way of knowing who could or couldn’t be trusted, but in order to get directions to the Valley Lodge, they had to let a little bit of information slip.

  “The mayor will want to see you, then,” the guard who’d been interested in Brandt’s backpack said.

  “Please, we have urgent business with the Seers,” Tanya pleaded.

  From the corner of his eye, Brandt saw Frederick uncross his arms and drop a hand casually to the hilt of his sword as he set the other on his belt. It was a gesture meant to resemble the swordsman relaxing and showing mild boredom, but Traxx knew better. He placed a restraining hand on the Guard’s chest and stepped forward.

  “I’m afraid all we have to offer is information,” Brandt said. “We can spare a few minutes to speak with your mayor.”

  “Nobody goes past Creede unless the mayor says they’re allowed,” the guard stated. “Wait here.”

  The two men returned to the little three-walled shack they’d been sitting in and one of them picked
up a bow. He lit the end of an arrow from their fire and launched it toward the town. Within minutes, a heavily bundled horseman rode up the road from town. He conferred with the guards for a moment before spurring the horse toward Brandt and his companions.

  “Welcome to Creede,” he said. His muffled voice was difficult to understand beneath the thick scarf he wore over his mouth.

  “Thank you,” Tanya replied. “We’re going to the Valley Lodge and need to pass through your town to get there.”

  “Aye. You do. If the mayor says it’s okay, we’ll let you through. First, you need to give the mayor any information you can about that army over your way.”

  Brandt understood the activity now. They were worried about the Vultures as well. That’s why they were erecting the wall and had the increased security—although, he had no idea what they thought two men could do to stop an army of crazed lunatics.

  “Of course,” Tanya answered. “We can provide any information that we have.”

  “Good, follow me,” the horseman stated. He turned his horse toward Creede and began walking slowly down the cracked and pitted old road so they could keep pace with him.

  They went past the construction site, wisely situated far enough from the town to allow for expansion in the future as well as standoff distance for weaponry fired over the fence. The townspeople used the terrain to their advantage, tying the ends of their fence to the natural barrier of the mountain slopes that rose around Creede.

  “This is a good first step,” Frederick remarked, breaking the silence. “After this fence is built, you’ll want to construct a legitimate wall that can withstand battering rams and fire; something that can be defended.”

  The horseman nodded. “We’re going to do that. We should have built walls decades ago, but we relied on our isolation to defend us. It took what’s happened to all those isolated villages around Homelake to spur us into action.”

  “Hopefully it’s not too late,” Frederick said, effectively killing the conversation he’d started.