Void Born Page 25

  Raine helped him lug the unconscious Elph to the half-burned doctor’s house, where Finn, Schultz, and Ann had set up station. Already, Kerlee and Geist had lined up two patients. Some of the uninjured watchers brought buckets of water from the well and provided cloths to wash wounds. Brandon followed them in, carrying a crying child. He settled on the ground with the waif of a girl on his lap, talking to her in quiet tones, trying to calm her hiccupping sobs.

  Ben searched through the battlefield for victims with a grim air. The scent around him lapped at his senses, blending burnt buildings with gunpowder, grass wet with blood morphed into concrete dust, and the cries and screams echoed the voices of his unit in his head. Memories collided with reality, and it became harder and harder to banish each recollection.

  Horror pounded through Ben’s blood even as he dragged Laurent away from where the shell hit. Pelletier helped him lift their injured comrade onto a table, and Ben’s swearing blended with Laurent’s. It would take a miracle for him to survive.

  Ben pressed his hands against an Elph man’s gashed artery, desperately trying to block the flow of blood. The flow of memories. No. He wouldn’t lose another one. He’d lost too many already. He would not give up on Laurent. He refused to let his friend die.

  The Elph’s breaths were faint, barely there. Ben closed his eyes and ground his jaw against the helplessness. Finn could do miracles and knit flesh together—but that was when he had the right tools, was rested, and didn’t have thirty other critical patients to take care of.

  This man was going to die. And just like Laurent, there was nothing Ben could do. A silent tear ran down his cheek. What good was he as a soldier, if he couldn’t protect his own unit, or the innocent lives here?

  The ground gave ever so slightly under his knees, and cool fingers touched Ben’s arm. Raine’s mouth opened, closed, his sorrow reflected in her eyes. She reached out and gripped the Elph’s limp hand until he breathed his last shuddering breath. She bowed her head. “Go, rest in peace in Areilia.”

  Ben repeated her words, weariness sinking into his bones, permeating every fiber. His hands and arms weighed at least a hundred pounds each, and his legs tingled with exhaustion.

  “I’ll help you take him to the burial grounds,” Raine offered quietly. She leaned over and wrapped her arm around Ben’s shoulders in a hug, and she paused there, her cheek nearly touching his, wisps of hair from her braid tickling at his jaw. “I didn’t say it earlier, but you did good in your first real sword fight.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.” Raine didn’t move right away, seemingly content to lean into him with her one-armed hug. Her head tilted in, and her cheek brushed his, the softness and utter woman-ness of her at complete odds with the scene around them. She cleared her throat and stood, not quite looking at him.

  Ben stood and staggered as pins and needles shot through his legs. “What’s the plan?”

  “No idea. Papa has been so busy, he hasn’t said anything yet.” Raine shrugged awkwardly as she lifted the dead Elph’s legs. “Ann made a passing comment that she may stay here to help.”

  “That’d be a good fit for her,” Ben grunted as he hoisted the deadweight up. If she wasn’t going to mention whatever that was a moment ago, then neither would he. And conversation might help keep more memories at bay. “And it means the doctor here can take more time to heal from his bite.”

  “Agreed. I think I’ll encourage her to do that, if she hasn’t already been convinced of the need.” Raine twisted to look back at Ben, her gaze slightly unfocused as she cocked her head. “Do you hear that?”

  Ben concentrated, then turned carefully, not wanting to risk dropping the body they had between them. The commotion was coming from the same direction in which he’d seen Brandon fighting a person. “Sounds like horses?”

  They delivered the body to the few villagers who were tending to the dead, then returned to the edge of the village in time to see what looked to be at least two dozen soldiers on horseback riding at a breakneck pace toward the village. One of the soldiers shouted, and they all veered toward Ben and Raine.

  Adrenaline surged through Ben, and he took a shaky breath, blinking away the tunnel vision. His hand slid down to his sword.

  Raine’s fingers gripped his wrist. “Don’t go for it.” She spoke while barely moving her lips. “Humility, Ben. We need to not look like a threat.”

  Ben watched the leader of the contingent as his face went from stony to dark and murderous at the sight of all the blood, churned up ground, trampled gardens, bent metal alarm railing, and dragon bodies. “I don’t think he’d believe us, even if we said we wanted to give him tea.”

  Raine cut her reply off as the leader of the group halted in front of them, looking down his narrow nose with sharp eyes.

  “Who are you? What happened here?”

  “Honored sir,” Raine stepped forward, bowing. “We are travelers of that airship.” She pointed to the Phoenix. “We were here, along with our crew, during a dragon attack that caught most the village unawares.”

  The Elph dismounted and walked closer. His wiry frame and slender face were all that Ben could see of similarities to the elves in his storybooks as a kid. The short hair, rounded ears, and lack of a smoothly graceful stride made him otherwise indistinguishable from humans. Except, maybe, the eyes. Those were dark, aged, having seen more than a lifetime’s worth of sorrows. He frowned. “Is that so? Then why did they glow us about the sacrificial site?”

  “That’s something you should come speak to their leader about,” Ben stated firmly. There was no point in saying right here and now that the leader he’d met that morning, Marius, was dead and had been replaced by their secondary leader, Cato. The commander would figure that out soon enough. “But before we take you to him, who are you, that we can announce you?”

  The leader’s eyebrows lifted, and one of his companions made a strangled sound. “I am Corporal Adonis of the Antius Military.”

  Ben gave a perfunctory nod. “Follow us, sir.”

  Raine walked side by side with Ben through the tattered village, past those mourning loved ones, and around the edges of the makeshift hospital where the new leader, Cato, was helping. He’d escaped with only deep scratches in his arm and had thrown himself into helping his people as best as possible.

  Raine approached Ben and touched his arm, drawing his attention from the teenage girl on the ground before him. Raine signed something, then pointed at Adonis. Cato’s eyebrows rose, and he nodded before climbing to his feet, ignoring Raine’s offered hand with a small smile and shake of his head. He walked past Ben, and Adonis started signing faster than Ben had seen Finn or Raine do.

  Roska dropped a bundle of kindling behind Ben, then propped his fists on his hips. “The new guys don’t look too friendly.”

  “They aren’t,” Ben replied, watching the two men converse in their silent language. Maybe Ben should learn sign language. Soon.

  “Cato is telling Adonis everything that we’ve known thus far,” Raine whispered. She frowned. “I didn’t catch that last part, but Adonis and the Elph rulership know what kind of trouble the bloodstone can cause, so they’re here to investigate.” Adonis looked at them, and Raine straightened before dropping her shoulders, as if trying to avoid inspection. She kept her voice low. “I think we’re under suspicion, thanks to being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  Adonis walked through the aisle of injured villagers. He stopped before Finn. “I hear you’re the leader of this group.”

  Finn looked up, then back down at the stitches he was sewing into a man’s side. “To a degree, that could be true.” He nodded across the grid-like design of injured at Rebecca. “She’s the captain of the airship, but I’m the one that directs where we go for the moment. So it depends on what kind of leader you’re looking for.” Finn tied off the last stitch, snipped the thread, then stood. His eyes came up to Adonis’s chin. “How can I help you, sir?”

  �
��Cato tells me that your crew helped save lives here, and that you’re pursuing those who came and theoretically reactivated a bloodstone.” Adonis stroked his goatee. “I’m inclined to believe him, for reasons of my own, but we need to take you back to Camort to speak to Emperor Ezran.”

  Ben stiffened at Adonis’s tone, but Finn merely nodded, as if it was to be expected. “Of course, sir.”

  Adonis scanned the injured laid out in rows. “We have two medics with us. We’ll leave them here to take over for you.”

  “That would be greatly appreciated.” Finn nodded. “Let me tell their herbalist what I’ve done with these patients here, so she knows what’s left to do.” He crossed two rows to kneel by Ann, talking to her in a voice too low to be overheard. She nodded several times, her eyes crinkling in the end. She patted his hand with her blood-stained one, leaving a smeared red streak on his skin.

  Finn waved to Rebecca, and she handed her stack of blankets to Ann before joining him and Adonis. “Rebecca, dear, the Corporal here wishes to take us to see the emperor, so we can share what we know of the situation.” Finn’s tone conveyed the statement and lack of request.

  Rebecca ran her hands over her hair in an attempt to settle the loose strands. Her lips twisted as she nodded. “Of course.”

  “I, and a few of my men, will ride onboard your vessel,” Adonis stated. “Along with our horses.”

  Rebecca’s eye twitched. “Yes, sir.”

  “We leave within the hour.” Adonis turned away. “There’s no time to spare.”

  Ben met Rebecca’s eye as she let out a deep breath, her arms crossed. Her wry smile didn’t reach her eyes. “Never a dull moment, huh?”

  “And if it’s dull, be suspicious,” Ben answered in kind. Rebecca’s chuckle held a bitter tinge to it, and she shook her head, then lifted her chin at Roska. “Roska, round up the crew.”

  Roska’s eyes widened. “You can’t be serious,” he stammered, gesturing back at Adonis. “We’re leaving within the hour, like he said? That doesn’t give me enough time to purify the ship of bad luck!”

  “I think we’d get more bad luck if we don’t comply.” Rebecca’s lips pressed together as she looked at Finn. He nodded, and she sighed. “Get the crew, Roska.”

  Roska stepped away from them, brushing Ben’s shoulder with his own. “We’re all going to regret this.”

  Ben scanned the injured and gripped his sword hilt. There had been no sign of Victor this entire battle. Ben would have to ask everyone while onboard the Phoenix if anyone had seen the traitor, but if no one else had, they had a whole new set of problems on their hands. But what could they possibly do, even if Victor had separated from Lucio?

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Jade

  Jade strode across the room, her eyes fixated on the delicate two-tone glass sculpture that she hadn’t noticed on the shelf before. She faltered as she got closer and could make out the two forms that twisted together in—oh. Heat rose to her cheeks and she pivoted on her heel, not making eye contact with Francene as she hunched her shoulders up.

  “Again,” Francene said, a note of amusement in her voice. “You need to glide, not tromp. And relax your spine.”

  “I’m not tromping.” Jade rolled her shoulders and scanned the room again, this time observing the other decorations on the walls and shelves. Her blush flared again, and she closed her eyes, trying to banish the images from her mind. She’d known that Francene was a powerful marchioness because of her role as the owner of all the brothels in Lucrum (a convenient fact for Weston to have omitted when convincing her to leave Doldra), but for the most part, Francene didn’t act like Jade would’ve expected of a woman of such ...talents. But the artwork here proved it. Jade had just been too distracted with her fear to notice such details before.

  Maybe that’s why Zak seemed so interested in looking out the windows lately. And why Zaborah had a resigned smirk more often than not.

  “You may not be tromping, but nor are you gliding,” Francene replied. “Try it again, and then you can take a break.”

  Jade pushed the jumbled thoughts out of her mind and nodded. This time she picked a chair as her focal point. She closed her eyes and exhaled as she rolled her shoulders, loosening up. Glide. Relaxed, yet straight. Eye contact. Gentle, yet strong.

  She walked the two laps and returned to the table where Francene sat sipping from a mug of something sweet-smelling. Jade allowed herself to collapse into the chair, then she straightened under the older woman’s stern look.

  Francene drummed her fingers against the table. “Better, but we’ll still need to work on your walk some more later.” Jade’s internal groan must’ve shown on her face, as Francene offered a sympathetic smile over her mug. “I know this isn’t what you wanted for yourself, dear.”

  Jade nodded and pulled her own mug of tea to herself, desperate for something that would hold off conversation. This was far from what she’d ever wanted. And yet, she could already feel the pressure of this new responsibility weighing her down. She had to do this. She could do this. She sipped the tea and let the warm, earthy notes and the tang of lemon soothe some of her tension.

  What if what Everett told Weston was correct? What if the barrier fell and the southern kingdoms weren’t united? It was all too easy to imagine the different nations fighting as their own units and being conquered without a thought by the Elph. She suppressed a shiver. Then they’d all be put under the blood-bond. At least, all who survived.

  Her own friends ...Jade rubbed her thumb against the handle of the blue mug. Her friends would go down swinging. So would she, if she had a choice. She’d rather die than be a slave.

  The scenario was very likely as it was, now that news of her survival was out, and rumors abounded as to whether the unification between Dolra and Aerugo counted, whether Violet really was the true queen, and what this meant for everyone.

  Doldra needed a ruler. And her father had made it quite abundantly clear that he wasn’t taking up the crown. Jade gripped the mug with both hands, gritting her teeth as she stared at her reflection in the rippling tea. He didn’t care about his people, and he didn’t care about her.

  She sagged against the back of the chair. Maybe it would be best for the people if she were to marry Weston after all. Their kingdoms would be united, and their military could be combined. The Monomi would be safe from any other horrors forced upon them because of the Treaty. She could even abolish the stupid document outright! And with the united army, they would have a better chance of repelling any invaders from the north, should the barrier ever come down.

  Her heart twisted. Marry Weston. And not Zak. How could she even consider it? Before all this happened, she’d expected to someday, if she was lucky, marry him. She directed her words at Francene. “Do you really think this is so necessary?”

  “Of course it is.” It was as if Francene was just waiting for Jade to say something. “Everett is doing this for his own political gain. He’s smart. He can’t let a good crisis go to waste.”

  Jade’s stomach knotted, and she curled her hands into fists. Yet another thing to hold against the scum-hawk. Not only was he a cruel ruler and abusive father—as she’d now witnessed—he was also an egotistical manipulator.

  “It is for the best of the nations to have Aerugo and Doldra strengthened in alliance once again.” Francene cleared her throat. “We’ll need to be as strong as possible, should the unthinkable happen.”

  “I have friends out there right now, working to make sure nothing happens,” Jade replied.

  “Even so, how many friends are out there, Jade? How many keystones can they reach in time? What if they go to the wrong keystone and it’s a different one that is used to take down the barrier? Only one need fall.”

  Jade dipped her head, wishing her hair wasn’t braided back, preventing her from hiding behind it. Francene’s words stung. They echoed the same questions that haunted Jade at night. How were they faring at this point? Had Ben found his home yet?
Had he managed to befriend Raine? She missed Kerlee’s jokes. She even missed Geist.

  “So, of course we need to consider this as necessary,” Francene said softly. “We don’t know the future, and we need to be as prepared as possible.” Her lips twisted to the side as she regarded Jade. “It’s amazing that Lord Everett hasn’t forced you and Weston out in some public spectacle as a celebratory gesture. So enjoy that, if nothing else.”

  Jade loosed a sharp, sarcastic laugh. “Probably because he’s smart enough to know that I’d purposefully throw a wrench in his gears.”

  Francene smirked. “Quite likely, my dear. But right now you are quite important to his plans and to the lives of all of us.”

  “Isn’t that a bit much to say?” Jade wrinkled her nose. She was more than a mere mechanic—she’d admit that much now—but to be told that she was that important just felt ...odd.

  “Not at all.” Francene slid her mug forward and reached for her glass of water. She swirled it gently, watching the water nearly reach the rim. “If Everett were to fall as leader, the candidate we have now is a cutthroat and a brute, not one meant for strategy and tactics and warfare. We’d be much worse off as a kingdom, and the rest of the southern nations would suffer as well.” Her face fell. “Count Mendez had been Violet’s and my pick as someone who could replace Everett. Now that he’s gone…” She trailed off with a sigh.

  Jade chewed on her lip. “What about you as a leader?”

  Francene pressed her hand over her heart while she laughed. “Me? No, dear Jade. I am no ruler of nations. My work is in the shadows, in the whispers in the dark, and in the sweat in the sheets. I am no military tactician. You and Weston are our best gamble at this point.”

  Jade’s tiny glimmer of hope fell and squashed on the ground. What hope was there? If she wanted her friends to live, she’d have to give them the best chance possible. Which meant a strong Aerugo. And a strong Aerugo needed an alliance with Doldra that would be publicly accepted as official. That meant she had no choice. She would have to marry Weston.