The Path of Ashes [Omnibus Edition]

by Parker, Brian

  While the Hole looked manmade, it felt like something entirely different. Freya couldn’t think of a proper way to describe her feelings about the gaping black pit. She should have been afraid, or at least slightly nervous, about what possibly lived in the darkness below. Bats, demonbrocs, mountain lions, all kinds of animals could have taken up residence there. But, it wasn’t like that. When she gazed down into the inky blackness, she felt warm inside and her heart fluttered slightly in her chest.

  “Scary place, huh?” Varan said, startling her.

  “Hmm. That’s not how it makes me feel. I feel like I’ve been searching for this place my whole life. Like everything that I’ve ever done and all that I’ve endured were to bring me to this moment.” Freya paused and glanced at Varan’s silhouette. She grasped his hand in hers, searching for a way to describe her feelings. “I feel like I’m… home.”

  He laughed and squeezed her hand. “Well, the priests say that you’re Gaia incarnate and this is where the spirit of Gaia is supposed to reside, so maybe you are home in a way.”

  Is that it? she wondered. Did she feel so comfortable in this barren place because of her connection with Gaia? Does that mean… Does that mean that I really am Gaia? It was a heavy thought, one that she’d dismissed before as religious superstition.

  “Varan, I don’t know. It feels blasphemous to say that I’m a goddess.”

  He smiled. “I’m the biggest skeptic that there is, but maybe there’s something to this. There seems to have been a lot of— Ungh!”

  The warrior started to fall forward, his dead weight threatening to drag Freya into the depths. She reacted, pulling against him and fell onto her back. His body flopped limply on top of her.

  “What? Varan! Help!” she cried, trying to push herself out from underneath him. As she did so, she found herself staring at the handle of a knife jutting from Varan’s back.

  “Well, hello there, Mother,” Grobahn spat as he stood above her.

  She shook her head side-to-side in disbelief. “What have you done?” she screamed.

  “Gaia—the real Mother—demands blood as a sacrifice… Your blood.”

  Freya pushed ineffectively against the dead weight of Varan’s body. It was no use; he was too heavy for her. She craned her neck to see what had become of Jade. Thistle stood behind her wheelchair, both hands pressed down on her shoulders. She wasn’t going anywhere with him there.

  She flicked her eyes back to the high priest. “Is this why you insisted that only Thistle come along?”

  “Of course, you idiot. The Watcher of the Coven obeys my bidding. He wouldn’t dare question me like the others do. They’ve been questioning me for years, but now I have the truth and the Mother speaks to me!”

  She pushed against the body, gaining a few inches of freedom. “Brahm said that we’d discover what we needed to do once we got here. He didn’t say anything about Gaia’s requirement for blood.”

  “The Summoner only received part of the vision. Gaia graced me with the entire thing.” His eyes sparkled strangely in the sliver of light coming from the new moon. “Once your blood is mingled with her spirit below, the earth will be healed!”

  The priest bent over and pulled the knife from Varan’s back. Blood splattered across Freya’s face as the curved dagger came free. “Ugh… Grobahn stop! You don’t have to do this.”

  “Oh, but I do. The Mother has been training me for this moment for years, hardening my heart by not speaking to me until recently. Those years of solitude prepared me for this moment. She has made it so I’m no longer afraid to do what must be done.”

  He looked up at Thistle. “Bring me the girl.”

  Grobahn sneered at Freya. “I want you to watch me cut her to ribbons. The Mother demands suffering.” Jade screamed as the hulking Watcher picked her up.

  “No!” a woman’s voice carried on the wind as Thistle stumbled, an arrow sprouting from his scapula.

  “What? What’s—” Another arrow appeared in Grobahn’s leg, causing him to fall. From her vantage point, she could see the priest press up close against Varan’s body, using him as a shield.

  The shadows came alive around Freya. Two men materialized from the darkness, swords held across their bodies in a guard as they advanced toward Thistle. A thin, dark-haired woman dashed into her line of sight, scooping up Jade in one motion and continuing back into the night.

  The men began to fight with Thistle. He used the thick scales on his arms to absorb and deflect their sword thrusts, backing dangerously near the edge of the pit until a large dagger appeared in his hand. He pressed forward, attacking the two swordsmen.

  The battle raged backward and forward for what seemed like minutes, then the Watcher’s knife slipped past the parrying thrust of one of the men, sliding down the length of the sword until it plunged hilt-deep into his chest. He collapsed instantly, freeing the blade.

  Thistle stepped back to reposition his feet and another arrow embedded into his neck. It severed his windpipe, impeding his breathing, but missing his jugular. His breath came out in wet gasps through the hole. The dagger wavered in his grasp momentarily and then tumbled to the ground.

  The remaining swordsman used the damage to press the advantage. He ducked inside the Watcher’s upraised arm and jammed the tip of his sword through the underside of Thistle’s jaw. The blade slid home, emerging from the top of the bigger man’s head.

  Thistle fell to his knees, the lifeless body held up by the blade in the swordsman’s hands. The newcomer placed his foot on Thistle’s chest and pushed. His body toppled over the edge of the Hole, lost forever.

  “Help!” Freya shouted.

  The swordsman spun, dropping into a crouch as he turned. His expression was one of determination, not of anger like she’d have thought it would be. He looked much younger than she’d expected.

  “Where’s the other one?” he asked.

  “He got shot,” she replied. “He was here, but I don’t know where he went. I can’t get out, can you help?”

  “Of course. Let me help you.”

  She didn’t expect Grobahn to answer her. He jerked her roughly from underneath Varan and wrapped an arm around her waist. The tip of his knife jabbed into her neck as he backed toward the pit.

  “You’ve ruined everything,” he spat at the swordsman, shifting Freya slightly with each step. He knows the archer is still out there, but he doesn’t know where.

  “Let her go,” the man who’d killed Thistle growled. “You kill her and you’re dead the second she falls.”

  “If I am to be sacrificed for the greater good, then so be it. I just need to—”

  THUD.

  “Ungh…”

  The fletching of another arrow appeared over her shoulder. The archer!

  “You’re going to ruin everything!” Grobahn shouted, the hatred in his voice evident. “Gaia demands this woman’s blood.”

  Grobahn’s body jerked awkwardly and the knife fell away from her neck, clattering to the brick below his feet. His hand clutched her stomach and then dropped.

  “That’s for taking my daughter,” a girl said behind her. Grobahn shuddered once more as he was stabbed again. “And that’s for Brandt.”

  Freya pushed away from Grobahn and he fell to the edge of The Devil’s Hole. The dark stain of his blood spread slowly across the brick, flowing down the grooves and running over the edge. The woman who’d grabbed Jade earlier stood nearby, holding a dagger covered in the priest’s gore.

  She stared defiantly at Freya. The former slave held up her hands to show that she was unarmed. “Where’s Jade?”

  “She’s safe.”

  “Did you say she was your daughter?”

  “Yes, she is.”

  “Then you must be the princess, Tanya,” Freya stated.

  The woman’s posture relaxed slightly. “Yes. How do you know?”

  “Jade told us about you. We’ve spent a lot of time together.”

  “Who are you?”

&nbs
p; “My name is Freya and…” she trailed off. What did Grobahn’s treachery mean? Was this past year just a lie? “And, up until a few minutes ago, I thought I was someone important. Now I realize that I’m just a slave who escaped a brutal master.”

  “Tanya! I’m so sorry,” the swordsman said from behind her.

  The princess looked beyond Freya to where the fight with Thistle had occurred. “Brandt’s gone, isn’t he?”

  “I’m sorry,” the swordsman reiterated.

  Tanya refocused on Freya. “Are you in league with this monster? We’ve traveled thousands of miles to find my child. Now that I have her, I’m not going to let anything get between us again.”

  Freya shook her head vehemently. “No. I’m not with him. He… He lied to us; said that if we came here with him, the earth would be healed.”

  “The Deceiver,” Tanya muttered.

  To emphasize her point that she wasn’t with Grobahn, Freya kicked the priest’s foot. It was enough force to send him sliding over the edge of the pit to the waiting darkness.

  “Ungh…”

  “Varan?” Freya cried in shock. She ran to her lover’s side and knelt beside him, she’d thought he was dead.

  “Varan?” the princess and swordsman both repeated at the same time.

  Freya felt along his neck until her fingers found the groove between his muscle and Adam’s apple. A weak, intermittent pulse met her touch. “Still alive,” he muttered with a lopsided grin.

  The others walked up behind her and she asked, “Are either of you healers? Grobahn stabbed him in the back. He’s going to die.”

  Tanya whistled with two fingers in her mouth, waving her arm above her head. “Darci is trained in the ways of healing battlefield wounds,” she said. “If there’s anything that can be done for him, then she’ll do it.”

  “Thank you.” She leaned down to whisper into the warrior’s ear. “Don’t you die on me, Varan. We have so much to live for. I’m… I’m pregnant, Varan.”

  His head lolled toward her. “Pregnant?” he asked feebly. “I’ve been hurt worse in the Contest.”

  Another woman jogged up to the group, Jade close behind her. “Uncle Varan!” the little girl called out as her mother tried to corral her into her arms.

  “Don’t look, honey,” the princess said.

  Freya stepped away as the woman crouched down to examine Varan. She set aside a giant crossbow to probe the wound and the area around it, pressing down with her fingers on both sides of the injury. Dark, maroon blood oozed out. “Not arterial,” she mumbled and reached into a pouch on her belt.

  A hand fell on Freya’s shoulder, exerting enough pressure to spin her around to face the swordsman. Tanya stood beside him with her hands crossed over her chest. “Who are you?” the princess demanded.

  “I’m Freya. I was a slave girl when I was given to Varan Traxx, Primus of the Contest.”

  “My cousin Varan is alive?” Tanya cried, falling to her knees before crawling over to the warrior’s prone body.

  *****

  Far from the family reunion, miles below the surface of the earth, Grobahn’s body splattered against the rock, feeding seeds that had remained long dormant in the darkness among the remains of humanity. They sprouted forth vines, growing rapidly to cover the floor of the entry to the Mother’s realm.

  The Taker of Souls emerged from between the growing vegetation. He inclined his head in respect to the Mother before claiming both Grobahn and Thistle’s bodies for his own. He slid backward into the vines, disappearing once more. She knew that he required one more soul for the fulfillment of their pact.

  Gaia stood from the throne where she’d been confined for so long, renewed by the energy of growth and hopeful for the new world that would spring forth. She decided that it was time for her to walk along the surface of her world once again. She’d been much too lenient with previous generations of humanity and they’d almost eradicated themselves and all of her other creations. She had to ensure that they didn’t make the same mistakes.

  The vines crawled toward the image of the New Moon, directly overhead. It was now the season of rebirth and the Mother allowed the expanding vegetation to carry her from the darkness into the light.

  EPILOGUE

  “The princess! The princess has returned!”

  The words echoed across the border city of Homelake, mingling with alarm bells from the watchtowers. The city came alive, needing the boost to their morale like never before.

  “Your Eye-ness,” a member of the Traxx Guard greeted her at the gate.

  “Rolf!” Frederick shouted in surprise, practically falling off his mare to give the fisherman a hug. “Wait. What are you doing in the uniform of the Guard? And a sergeant to boot!”

  “Lot’s changed since ya left, Frederick. We had ta militarize the entire city, that ain’t somethin’ ya come back from easily.”

  “But the Vultures are gone, right?”

  “Aye, boy. Killed their leader myself, I did.” He placed an arm around Frederick’s neck and the two of them turned away from Tanya and her companions.

  She couldn’t hear what they whispered, but Frederick looked over to her several times with a pained expression. He separated from Rolf and thanked him before stepping up into the saddle once more.

  “What was that about?” Tanya asked.

  Frederick shook his head. “We must return to The Keep as soon as possible.”

  They rode through the gate and it clanked together behind them. She turned to watch the Guard secure the iron with locks. The gates were always open before the Vultures came, but if we beat them, why are they locked once again?

  The clattering of hooves announced an escort, hastily dispatched to be their honor guard. The riders were more heavily armored than a simple ceremonial escort.

  “What has happened?” Tanya asked Frederick, pulling on the reins.

  “Princess?” a familiar voice called from the behind the honor guard.

  The soldiers’ horses parted and Nicholas, Captain of the Traxx Guard, rode through the press of bodies. His eyes swept across Tanya’s ragtag group. Freya and Varan rode double on Brandt’s horse, while Jade sat in front of her and Frederick rode alone. Darci had returned to the service of the Seers after a tearful goodbye in the town of Creede.

  “Hello, Nicholas,” Tanya replied. “What’s the meaning of this?”

  His eyes dropped and then he looked back up. “Where is Brandt?” the captain asked.

  “He didn’t survive our journey.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that. Blake will be overcome with grief. He was a special young man, destined for greatness. So many lives cut short.” Nicholas took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “Tanya, there’s no easy way to say this… Your father is dead. He was killed a week ago by a broc when he was on one of those trading missions of his. Your uncle has been acting as the regent until your return.”

  The world seemed to fall away from Tanya and she became lightheaded. It certainly wouldn’t do for her to pass out on her horse. “I must sit for a moment,” she stated and slid awkwardly to the ground.

  The princess stepped a few feet away from the street and sat in the vibrant grasses of the city. It seemed like spring had made a comeback everywhere they went. The grass made a soft cushion under her and she dropped her head between her knees.

  “What of my mother?” she asked.

  “Suicide,” Nicholas replied, thin-lipped. “She jumped from the battlements two nights ago.”

  They’d been through so much. This wasn’t the reception that Tanya had anticipated upon her return. She’d expected to return to an exuberant party in celebration of Jade’s rescue and the return of Varan from the dead. Instead, it was more of the same: Death and sorrow.

  Is pain all that life has to offer to humanity?

  A thick shadow appeared over her and she looked up into the face of her red haired companion, whose stomach had extended now that she was in the sixth month of her pregnancy. “D
o not be sad for your father, child,” Freya said hollowly. “The Taker required a few more for our bargain to be complete. The deal was struck long ago and the Traxx family has paid my debt. For that, I am eternally grateful.”

  “Freya, what do you mean?”

  In her periphery vision, she saw Frederick motioning to keep the Guard at bay. “As repayment for the burdens I placed on your family for the last century, your children and grandchildren are now immune from all the illnesses and harm of this world. They will each live to a ripe, old age, dying on the last day of their ninety-ninth year. The Traxx will rule the entire region through diplomacy and bring peace to all of your partners.”

  “I’m not sure what you’re talking about, Freya. You’re not making any sense.”

  “Freya is connected to me in an unexplainable way; she is the vessel who delivers my message in a fashion that everyone can understand,” the redhead detailed. “I am Gaia; and I have returned to this world, Queen Tanya.

  “The old world was purged by fire,” Gaia continued. “The coals have darkened; the embers are extinguished. In their place, the world will be made new again and the Traxx will carry my message of love as far as the oceans. Your family will be my voice for generations to come and my generosity will flow through you to all the people of Homelake.”

  She stared at her new friend. The things she said were crazy—and yet, they felt right.

  Tanya was now the head of the Traxx family. Mother Gaia guaranteed them safety and prosperity, but it was up to her to ensure that her family wasn’t corrupted by that power. Humanity couldn’t afford to slip into the chaos of the old world ever again.

  “I will make you proud of your creation once again… Mother.”

  “I know you will. I will always be watching.”

  The End

  this concludes The Path of Ashes series

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