Blizzard (Black Ice Trilogy Book 2) Page 16

  Zachariah smiled as two more servants scurried past us as we ascended the stairs. “We took a great chance six months ago when we opened the borders for trade.”

  “Yes, but we had to with the recent weather events this year; the damage could not have been foreseen.”

  “That may be true.” Zachariah’s voice sounded tired, worn from the very topic. “But we put ourselves at risk and have subsequently given Reegan the foothold he’s long sought.”

  “How much.” I paused, afraid to ask. “How much time is less than two days? How many hours do we truly have to prepare?”

  A crude grin crept across my father’s face as we crested the top of the stairs, continuing on to the council room. “I would say closer to thirty-six hours, if I were being generous. More likely twenty-eight.” He opened the door, entering before me and Thedryk.

  I followed, with Thedryk close behind, and found my mother already in talks with the council members. Three older male faces turned to take in our arrival, immediately shifting their attention to Zachariah and engaging him before seeing my face and silencing themselves. Xavier sat just next to my mother, hands clasped as though in prayer as he listened to her every muffled word. That moment made me realize I had not truly heard a word any had spoken, but I stayed just beyond the doorway watching.

  Only Thedryk’s nudge pushed me beyond the threshold, and my mother’s words took new life and volume. She cast a spell upon the room, to mute the noise. The truth was dancing beneath my skin, within my blood. I had known long before reaching our destination magic had been at work, just as any person knows when they’re being watched. That sensation of electricity reaching across space had sizzled and burned until I could almost smell the energy that arced from her powers. She had constantly forewarned me of my own powers, how I would exceed all others before me, but I never felt that would come to pass. Just a mother’s bias towards her child’s potential. Stepping through the doorway, past the threshold of silence, I found the ringing of my mother’s voice again, the labored breathing of the older men in the room, and my own heartbeat that began beating harder with every step. The time had come, and I felt wholly unprepared for what I was expected to accomplish.

  “…bring them all to the castle. We will save those that we can.” My mother’s eyes turned, finally, to acknowledge my presence. I could see the weight of the world in the growing dark circles beneath her usually bright and intelligent eyes. The glow I had always seen about her had dulled; she had not had enough rest or sustenance to sustain her current pace.

  Xavier pulled her attention back, though his eyes turned to my face as well, examining me from head to toe “You know the survivors will likely be few, but I will rescue all those I can, Lady Eliza.”

  “Yes, Xavier, thank you. You will be needed back here immediately. I’m sorry to burden you with this, but you must prioritize on your own those lives. We cannot risk losing the youths and able over any who are unable to travel.”

  I stood staring in shock. Though she tried to delicately place the command, the unspoken bits still shattered my heart. “You would leave behind the elderly and disabled?” Blurting the words out revealed a certain level of horror and disgust not even I was prepared for.

  My mother huffed a light sigh, her own disappointment present, though I couldn’t tell in what way. “What matters now is fortifying our main fortress, here, and ensuring we have all the able-bodied men, women, and children secured here and prepared for the…for Reegan and his demons.”

  “But they’re our people! We have to protect them!” I felt a strong, warm hand grip my shoulder, pulling me back. I had not realized I had taken steps forward, my fists clenched tightly shut with my nails embedding themselves into the soft tissues of my palms.

  “Kareese.” Zachariah, my father with his firm and steady way had always managed to calm me before. “Hold yourself together before you lose control of yourself. There are facts that must be relayed before you speak any further.”

  I had never been able to argue with him, and my infuriation did not change that in the given moment. So I listened. I learned how the demon invasion had spread across our lands as locusts during peak harvest. They had found ways in from every possible corner, every nook and cranny, and we were in the final pathway. Only one village outside the castle remained still intact, and that was expected to fall within the next twenty hours, at least.

  “Your time has come, Kareese. Once we have everyone assembled here we will take our best and meet Reegan head on.” My mother’s eyes were the center of Auria. Molten anger and hardest stone encased her hidden furies. Of Reegan I only knew he was who had changed the world to the hell we were fighting against, had ruined all he touched. Somehow, I was supposed to kill the man who had brought demons into our world. Yet no one seemed to know how I would do just that outside my skills with my daggers. Magic and weapons? There is the forbidden spell but it is just that…forbidden. She said I would know but I don’t. I’m just afraid.

  “I cannot just wait here. I want to help out there, too.” Sitting and being the patient warrior was not something I was capable of, I knew.

  My mother started to rebuff my sentiment, but my father stopped her short, his hand raised. “Fine, but only to the village just beyond. This will be safe enough for in-and-out rescuing, don’t you agree, Eliza?”

  On one of the rare occasions, my mother conceded quietly. She slowly nodded, lips tight.

  “Go, prepare yourself, Kareese. Thedryk, you as well.” Zachariah did not smile but provided his approving nod as both Thedryk and I started to leave on his word.

  “However,” my mother piped up. “I will accompany them both. Zachariah, please help Xavier, and both of you meet up with us as soon as you can.”

  Looking from my mother to me, Zachariah nodded once more, and the deal was done.

  Beyond the muted room the sunlight shone brightly; at least two hours had passed. Two hours of lost time when people might be dying pushed me to a near run as I headed for my room. Thedryk’s voice was a buzz in the back of my mind as I considered what was to come, until he grabbed my arm and pulled me back just steps away from my door.

  “Kareese!”

  Facing him from the side didn’t stop his green eyes from halting my wandering gaze. My assigned protector, a man always just beyond my reach. His presence was a comfort that could not be found anywhere else, could not be replicated within another, but the way he had looked to my mother was a way I only hoped he could look at me. Every time I dared dream, I would see that look on his face as he watched my mother. She was strength, beauty, feminine, and perfection where I was awkward and lanky. A thin frame of a child who could never compare to the Madonna that was my mother. Though, moments such as this, I almost thought I saw more in his eyes when he looked at me as he did just then. Desperate to protect me, help me, support me, but the words of a fool more often crushed that dream.

  “You can’t go.” He affixed his expression in a firm fashion, certain his words alone would change my course.

  “What?” My face undoubtedly held a dumbfounded expression, not intelligent appearing by any stretch of the imagination, I was certain.

  “You’re putting everything and everyone at risk by doing this.”

  “How can you say that? This is what I have trained my entire life for! You and my mother and father…and Xavier! Everyone!” I scoffed at his remarks.

  “Yes, we have all worked so hard to help you be prepared, and you would risk losing it all for a moment of selfish martyrdom?” Color was rising in his cheeks at the same rapid pace it was in mine.

  “Selfish martyrdom?” I repeated the words slowly, deliberately emphasizing the syllables. “Is that what you think of me?”

  He clenched his jaw, his eyes hard green emeralds trying to put me in my place. “I understand how you feel, but this isn’t wise. It’s childish.”

  Ah, there it was. Something he made use of was my mother’s words against me. It never worked in his f
avor when he did such, but he continually tried that avenue regardless. Something about how he said it, the fact that he said it made a small part of me break inside, and he was flying several feet back into the hallway. I had snapped both arms out as I faced him squarely, my emotions unleashing the pent-up anger I had harbored. Yet I did not take the time to consider my actions, that I had just used magic in a way I had never before. Instead I advanced down the hall towards him, part of me bent on teaching him a lesson this time. He had landed with a heavy thud across the stone flooring, breath knocked from his lungs. Gasping as a fish, he only stared up at me in wonder as I came upon him, a fever overrunning my senses and sanity.

  “Childish, Thedryk, really? Maybe perhaps I am. Constantly doting after a boy who adores a woman almost twice his age, always fighting against a life I did not, and would never, have chosen for myself, but what would you know? You just do as you’re told and make sure to chide me along with everyone else!”

  My screaming carried through the floors and walls, windows rattled, and my mother’s hand was suddenly upon my brow with her hushed word “rest.” Immediately I was gone from where I had been, no longer standing over Thedryk in the castle, but in a room poorly lit. A figure shuffled in the corner covering the faint source of light. Laughter burst across the small room, but the frame of the figure only swayed. No motion followed the insane laughter as I covered my ears in its growing, deafening roar before it stopped suddenly.

  “Your mother has been a naughty girl, my daughter.” A voice, deep but hollow, spoke to me. The volume was natural, but it chilled my soul. “I doubt you even know who you…” The figure turned, partially revealing a terrifying face, skinned. Muscle and accompanying soft tissue glistened under the dying candlelight as the muscles contracted into a smile, revealing smooth, sharpened yellow teeth. All were refined points to the front, but to the back where the molars should have been gleamed serrated teeth. A stifled scream caught in my throat as the blackened eyes flicked to mine, the smell of sulfurous death smothering me. “Tell the little witch I will see you both soon. So wonderful to be reunited with my long…lost…family.” The demon stepped towards me, reaching out his hands to reveal they too were skinless but not human. Massive in size, with the same number of fingers as a human but equipped with blackened nails that formed as daggers on each, several inches long and thick, he cupped my face and gently guided those fingers along my cheek and jawline, stopping to cut a small line across my chin.

  I felt the blood seep out, pain burning in the open wound. A small sound issued from my open mouth, a cry accompanying my tears born of fear.

  “Oh, don’t cry, daughter, it’s only daddy. Do tell your mother and Zachariah I knew…I always knew. This was all part of my plan, and you have played into it so beautifully. I have not been disappointed.”

  “How?”

  The one breathless word I could muster amused the demon. “You are of my blood; you will always be tied to me. Should I ever need to, I can reach you through your dreams. You aren’t the only one with special powers. Consider yourself…blessed.” A chuckle resounded in the small darkening room, though his face and body did not produce the physical reaction. “Because of me you will reach unparalleled potential. Consider this: with me, you can reach that untapped ability, but with your mother and Zachariah that will never happen.”

  And then I was back with my mother.

  Leaning over me, her face drained of color, worry having aged her beyond her years, she drew in a shaky breath before collapsing in a hug upon my body. She pulled me tight to her with a quivering cry she could not contain.

  “Is she awake? Is she all right? Kareese, are you…” Zachariah, my father as I had always known, gently peeled my mother away to examine me himself, and beyond him I could see Xavier waiting by the door blocking the entrance. I felt my father’s hand stop at my chin, and with his other hand he pulled free a kerchief from his jacket pocket and pressed it to my chin. The pain had not dissipated, but the shock of the transition had caused me to momentarily forget what had transpired in the dream.

  “I…” I still had my voice; it had not entirely deserted me. “What happened?” My senses were returning rapidly, turning my stomach and the room with it.

  “Go on out, I will tend to her. Please, check on Thedryk.” My mother sat on the edge of my bed in her black fighting garb, several cloths rolled in her hands.

  “Oh…no, what did I do?” The memory briefly flashed in my mind, trying to make sense of the events as they had occurred.

  My father kissed my head and departed with Xavier. Sunset was approaching. My mind was firing off panicked reminders of what was coming, the sensitivity to time, all the people, but my mother ended those thoughts.

  “I should have told you sooner.” My mother sniffled, her shoulders caving inward as if in utter defeat. “Who your father is.”

  I could do nothing in that moment but stare at the worn woman before me I had known as my mother.

  “No, indeed, Zachariah is your cousin. The man who is your...who…”

  Watching her struggle with the words forced me to withdraw into my mind. I knew the truth already. The demon had told me, a demon had told me the truth before my mother. “He’s not my father, that demon was…is.” The words were foreign, devoid of emotion. There was no conviction, no malice, just the presence of fact in its natural state. “What’s happening to me?”

  “Your time has finally come,” my mother answered, but she appeared to not be present otherwise. Her mouth remained slightly open, and her natural beauty resided at the surface as it always had, but she was gone mentally. Shaking herself free of the daze she had fallen into, she handed me the rolled bandages. “You will need these to help with the bleeding.”

  I only nodded; she had told me of this life event to come, and here it was. Presented with the poison ivy paper and thorn bush ribbon and bow.

  “When do we leave for the village?” I took notice of my own black garb laid across the end of the bed.

  “Once you are dressed and ready.”

  I watched, disheartened, as my mother stood to leave. “Did I…hurt Thedryk?”

  “No, I think you just taught him not to doubt, question, or degrade you ever again.” My mother gave a ghost of a laugh before leaving the room.

  I changed the bandages, wrapped myself up, and dressed without delay, but my mind moved slowly as I went over each moment. From the burning I felt still roiling within my skin to the heady scent of the demon that would not abate. The truth left my heart and mind in a deadlock of confusion and anger, but the thought of the people kept me from falling into despair.

  As I left my room behind I found Thedryk leaning with his back to the wall opposite my door, his right fist to his mouth and left arm crossing his chest, and his serious expression memorizing the details of the floor. He was dressed in his own black garb and cloak, taking a moment to breathe in slow and steady before turning his eyes to mine. Straightening, he took a few even-keeled steps towards me, apprehension clear in his movements.

  “I owe you an apology, it would seem.” He winced, slightly, with his words.

  “No, I’m sorry. I went too far and you are clearly hurt.” I felt waves of warmth and coolness pulse across my flesh, emotions struggling within of guilt, residual anger, panic, and fear.

  “Just let me tell you…” Thedryk paused, clenching his jaw, which emphasized the structure of muscle and bone clearly. “I am not some doting, lovesick boy. I know you aren’t childish; though you may act it sometimes, your intentions were pure. Lady Eliza is not an object of fancy; I have always seen her as a mother. Not…not replacing mine but, she and Master Zachariah raised me without prejudice of my family’s mistakes. Regardless of how dearly it cost them. I owe them everything.” Thedryk turned towards the stairwell leading down to where the others waited, I knew, but I wasn’t quite done.

  “It doesn’t seem that way to me.” It was my turn to memorize the imperfections of the flooring.
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br />   “What does it matter? You are my responsibility, protecting you and helping to train you. That is how I make amends for the mistakes of my family.”

  “I am more than just some job!” Snapping back, I felt my blood burning again, my cheeks pinking with the color of sunset. “We just need to go. Clearly, I am capable of handling myself, now. Consider yourself relinquished of whatever debt you feel you owe!” Hurt and embarrassed, I turned and strode away swiftly, making quick work of the steps and the curving stairwell and almost running into Xavier who waited at the bottom.

  Curious eyes turned to take in the sight of me and Thedryk close behind, but I didn’t wait for the inquiry as I shuffled through a large group of people. I had anticipated the group to be far smaller, but it seemed my parents had been busy during my demonic encounter. At least forty people filled the hallway, all men with the exception of myself and my mother. Her questioning glance upon seeing my face made me want to disappear entirely, but she did not speak to me on the matter. Instead, she turned to the group of men, her face stern as she considered each individually.

  “Our time has finally arrived. Reegan has crossed our borders and infiltrated our lands. He and his demon horde have closed off every possible avenue in and out of our kingdom. We have one last village that remains untainted, and they require our assistance to return them safely here. There are villages with survivors remaining, however, so only five to each group will be divided up and sent to save those who can be saved. Do not risk your own lives unnecessarily, as we will need every single able-bodied man available to protect our stronghold here at the castle.”

  “You don’t mean for us to leave people behind, do you?” A young man, barely nineteen spoke up from halfway down. His hair was the red of fire, eyes dark brown, and pale skin that highlighted his youthful features.