Reborn Raiders (The Weatherblight Saga Book 4) Read online

  Reborn Raiders

  Edmund Hughes

  This digital book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this title with another person, please purchase an additional copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. All other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual events or persons is entirely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2019 by Edmund Hughes

  Kindle Edition

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I wouldn’t have been able to publish this book if it wasn’t for the support of my readers, my fantastic cover artist, Cherry-gig, and my dedicated editors. Inspiration for the story elements comes from a variety of places including (but not limited to) Fallout, Diablo, Final Fantasy, A Wheel of Time, Arcane Ascension, and The Demon Cycle.

  Contents

  Reborn Raiders

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  INTERLUDE (ERWIN LUKA)

  CHAPTER 28

  CHAPTER 29

  CHAPTER 30

  CHAPTER 31

  CHAPTER 32

  CHAPTER 33

  CHAPTER 34

  CHAPTER 35

  CHAPTER 36

  INTERLUDE (MYTHRIL)

  CHAPTER 37

  CHAPTER 38

  CHAPTER 39

  CHAPTER 40

  CHAPTER 41

  CHAPTER 42

  CHAPTER 43

  CHAPTER 44

  CHAPTER 45

  CHAPTER 46

  CHAPTER 47

  CHAPTER 48

  CHAPTER 49

  CHAPTER 50

  CHAPTER 51

  CHAPTER 52

  CHAPTER 1

  Few brambles grew on the Draketongue Steppe, which meant that Fuscia could run through the bushes with the kind of reckless abandon common only to children. It was late in the day, close to sunset, but she knew where she was going and she knew her way back.

  She gave her tiny, immature wings a small flap as she dropped into one of the gaps in between the hills. It had taken her close to an hour to find an excuse to split off from Timo. It had been simple. She’d just needed to announce that she needed to relieve herself, and suddenly, the warnings issued by Grena and Kerys had been all but forgotten in the little boy’s mind.

  It was cold, which Fuscia didn’t like. The ground had frosted over twice that week, and she could already feel the chill in the evening air like a premonition. She pulled her wings closer about her as she reached the top of the next hill. She knew she was close, and she frowned in concentration as she tried to remember the exact spot.

  She sucked in a small breath when she spotted them. Ripe blueberries in a patch that had managed to keep growing out of season. It was just a small patch, but she was a small girl. Grena would have chastised her for not telling Kerys and Amber about the berries, but Fuscia didn’t see how the entire group of them would have been able to share so few.

  She felt a little ashamed of herself, especially for keeping the secret from the other children. Timo especially would have gotten excited over them, given how similar their tastes were. She needed this, though. She needed a thing that could just be hers again, even if just for a little while.

  Fuscia started collecting the berries, filling her tiny palm with as many as it could hold. She ate the entire handful at once, gasping at the intense, tarty sweetness as juice dribbled down her chin. It reminded her of the pies Grena used to make, back when they still lived in the Nest. Back before that horrible night of fire and terror and shouting.

  She started gathering another handful, but she was distracted by the sound of approaching footsteps. Fuscia’s face was red with guilt as she turned around, expecting to find Timo or perhaps even Kerys there to demand what she’d been doing.

  Instead, she saw a coyote moving toward her with wary steps. It sniffed the bushes she’d pushed through on her way down the hill, turning them over with its snout as though it trusted its nose to follow Fuscia’s trail better than its eyes. It was a handsome animal, with a rust-red coat of fur and big yellow eyes. Eyes which passed over Fuscia and settled on the blueberries behind her.

  She glared at the creature and stomped one of her feet. She didn’t get scared anymore, not like some of the other children did. Nothing could ever be as scary as that night had been. Fuscia still felt possessive of the berries, and she was no more willing to share them with a curious coyote than she was to share them with Timo or the others.

  She reached down and fumbled through the grass, fingers searching for a rock. She found a dirt clod instead, and as the coyote took another step forward, she hurled it in the animal’s direction. It struck the coyote on the flank, eliciting a small and somewhat exaggerated yelp that was more surprise than pain.

  “Go away!” She shouted the words twice, once in her own language, and again in Subvios, which she’d been speaking more and more with Kerys and the other Hume. The coyote hesitated, but only for a few seconds.

  A howl sounded from behind one of the nearby hills. It was Fuscia’s turn to hesitate as she heard more approaching footsteps. Paw steps. A small group of coyotes, few enough that she could count on her fingers, but only if she used both hands. More than enough to remind her of the fear she’d previously shaken off.

  These coyotes were bigger than the first one, some of them with heads that were easily level with her shoulder even when she stood up straight. Fuscia took a step back into the berries as the coyotes surrounded her. They could have the berries if they really wanted them, she decided. They were looking at her now, and that scared her. She wasn’t supposed be afraid of anything anymore, not after that night.

  “No,” she said, her voice sounding like a whimper rather than the shout she’d intended. “Go away.”

  She heard another sound. Someone calling her name, along with footsteps too heavy to belong to any pack animal. The coyotes were baring fangs and closing in on her, and there he was.

  Lord Stoneblood bounded down the hill, taking massive, leaping steps aided by the enchanted cloak that seemed to serve him like a minor version of Fuscia’s own wings. His hair was uncut and scraggly, his clothes were rough and practical, and the grin on his face made him look simultaneously younger and older than he truly was.

  “Take off!” he shouted, landing from his jump next to Fuscia. “I saw her first.”

  The largest of the coyotes continued to growl. Lord Stoneblood sighed, took a step forward, and slammed a kick under its chin. This time, the yelp it let out was definitely one of pain.

  ***

  Ari stood in front of the sobbing Ravarian child, watching as the coyotes departed in search for easier prey. He winced as he lowered himself to his knee and set his hand on the girl’s shoulder. Fuscia was her name, he remembered. S
he was the second youngest of the children they’d become host to after the tragedy that had struck Varnas-Rav.

  “It’s okay, Fuscia,” said Ari. “They’re gone now. We’re going to head back to Etheria, okay?”

  The girl continued sobbing. Her chin was stained purple, and a glance at the blueberry bush behind explained both the color and her reason for sneaking off from the settlement. She was trying to say something, though it was in Ravakkios, and Ari still didn’t have a grasp of the language beyond a few simple words.

  “Don’t cry,” he said. “You’re safe. The mighty Lord Stoneblood has come to rescue you!”

  He stood up straight, setting his hands on his hips and puffing out his chest. He let out an exaggerated, buffoonish laugh and began attacking imaginary enemies with impractical kicks and punches that were all but guaranteed to get a laugh. Fuscia’s crying slackened off and shifted into giggles as Ari threw a punch that carried him into an off-balance roll. He stood up with his Feathercloak over his head and spun in a circle, playing up his confusion.

  “Lord Aristial?” called Eva. “You found her?”

  Ari pulled his cloak back into place and turned around to look at Eva. She’d come with him to search for Fuscia to the north, while the others had spread it in other directions. She stood at the top of the hill with the setting sun behind her, one hand resting on her waist.

  For a couple of seconds, it was all Ari could do to stare at her. Eva was tall, with slender curves and the slim, elegant physique common to the Sai. Her silver-blue hair was long, but she almost always wore it up, twisting it into braids which she then wove into a perfect bun without a strand of hair out of place.

  Eva preferred practical clothing, a tunic and trousers. One of Ari’s tunics, in fact, though it seemed perfectly suited for her despite being a little big. She wasn’t smiling, and her expression seemed full of awareness despite being relaxed. Her sapphire-blue eyes took in the scene of Ari and Fuscia in a manner not unlike the pack leader of the coyotes.

  Looking into her eyes made Ari’s heart skip a beat. Eva’s face was elegant, with defined cheekbones and pouty red lips. He’d always thought that her face had a similar kind of beauty to the way she looked while in sword form, as the enchanted greatsword Azurelight. It was a sharp sort of attractiveness, seductive and dangerous.

  “Aristial?” called Eva. “What is it?”

  “Ah, nothing,” said Ari. “Would you care for a blueberry, milady?”

  “The others are likely still searching and still worried,” said Eva. “We need to take her back.”

  “I know, I know,” said Ari. He handed the few blueberries he picked to Fuscia instead, who gleefully stuffed them into her mouth. She seemed to have recovered from her scare and made a noise of appreciation as Ari lifted her up onto his shoulders.

  “This is the third time this week that this has happened,” said Eva.

  “It’s the first time that Fuscia has wandered off,” said Ari. “She’s usually one of the calmer ones.”

  “You know what I mean,” said Eva. “This could have been prevented.”

  “I’m already going to get an earful from the others,” he said. “Can’t you wait to voice your disapproval until everyone else does, for the sake of efficiency?”

  Eva crossed her arms and gave him a look he knew all too well. She was right, of course. They’d spoken to the children about being careful about where they played and how far they ranged from the settlement in the arena, which they’d taken to calling Etheria over the past few weeks. After the second close call, Ari had suggested having the children use the buddy system, splitting into pairs to keep track of one another. It had seemed to work, at least at first.

  “It might be time to consider having one of the adults take on the duty of watching them full-time,” said Eva.

  “It would mean taking one of us off foraging or hunting,” said Ari. “Which we can’t really afford right now.”

  “I do not think you realize just how young some of the children are,” said Eva. “Lord Aristial, you need to consider the consequences of some of the decisions you make.”

  “Didn’t I say that this discussion would be best left for once we’re back at the settlement?” said Ari.

  Eva shook her head disapprovingly but said nothing more.

  Etheria came into view as they reached the top of the next hill, and Ari let his eyes focus on the ancient, abandoned relic. It was a massive, circular stone arena large enough that it could have only hosted battles between armies rather than individuals. It was large enough, in fact, to fit a small town inside of, which was more or less the purpose it now served.

  A lot of the work he and the others had done over the past month had been on the inside, cleaning out a few of the large, dusty rooms and repurposing them as living space. By far the most obvious sign of their efforts, however, was the turtle-shell roof that now covered the massive arena.

  The roof was made of stone of a copper color, without the line pattering of cemented brick in the same way as the arena’s slate-grey walls. It had appeared in a flash of light followed by impenetrable darkness when Ari had activated the corresponding essence rune, an event that had brought out a chorus of terrified screams from the children, even though he’d given them advance warning.

  He’d found ward lights higher up along the interior walls of the arena, which kept the settlement from being completely shrouded in darkness. From the outside, Etheria looked almost like a massive, sleeping turtle, with its only entrance being the tunnel at the north end, which had the effect of looking like a protruding neck and thin head.

  Ari had also attempted to activate the rune ward in the tunnel which he was relatively sure had once opened and closed a door in a similar, magical manner to the way the roof had been conjured into place. That ward hadn’t done anything, which had left them with a singular pressing issue. While they were safe from the emergence of Weatherblight within Etheria, there was nothing stopping the monsters from rushing inside other than the efforts of Ari and the few others who were willing and able to fight.

  On this evening, it wasn’t the Weatherblight waiting for him outside the tunnel. Kerys, Durrien, and Grena watched as Ari and Eva made their way down the hill with Fuscia, and he saw them relax visibly as they drew near enough to see that they’d brought back the child.

  Ari set Fuscia down on her feet and braced himself for what he suspected would be a very trying conversation.

  CHAPTER 2

  Grena stepped forward first, dropping to one knee to admonish Fuscia in Ravakkios. Her tone of voice reminded Ari so much of the mistresses back in Golias Hollow that he didn’t need to hear what she was saying to understand her meaning.

  She looked a fair bit like one of the mistresses, too, though her hair was black rather than grey. Her face was matronly but mostly free of wrinkles, which was a testament to the elegance with which Ravarians tended to age in comparison to the Hume. Grena was slightly plump, though like all of them, she’d lost weight over the past few weeks.

  She scooped Fuscia up into her arms and continued scolding the girl as she carried her into the settlement. Durrien and Kerys stepped forward as Grena left, each clearly ready to give Ari a piece of their mind.

  Durrien looked more disappointed than mad. He was an old man, with a bulky, muscular frame and tanned skin. His tangled grey hair was impressively thick for his age, and there was little separation between it and the full, grey beard that covered his face.

  “The girl is safe,” said Durrien. “At the very least, that’s what truly matters.”

  Kerys let out a frustrated noise and shook her head. Ari hated when he managed to get her irritated with him, even though it seemed to have become a biweekly event. Even though there was something about seeing her annoyed and pouting that was undeniably cute, he would have never said that within earshot of her.

  Kerys was short, both for an adult and a woman. Her hair had grown out over the past few weeks, blonde returning to
the roots in place of the black she’d been forced to dye it while living in Cliffhaven. She wore it in a ponytail, which had the curious effect of making it look as though she’d dipped the end of it into ink.

  She was gorgeous, which made it even harder for Ari to focus on whether to formulate an excuse or an apology. Kerys had the kind of body that drew the eyes of men and the ire of envious women. Her breasts were large and still full of youthful buoyancy, young as she was. Her butt was the right sort of plump, even after weeks of the diminished rations the settlement had been surviving on.

  Kerys wore a plain dress of grey and blue, one of the ones Durrien had given her during her stay in Cliffhaven. It would have shown off some of her cleavage if not for the shirt she wore underneath to ward off the cold of the approaching winter. It was a simple outfit on a complex body.

  Ari saw Kerys both as she was and as she had been. He only noticed the lower section of her right arm, which ended in a tied-off sleeve rather than a hand, if he focused on it. It was as much because of the guilt he still felt over his inability to save her from the injury in the first place as it was due to the way it seemed like a minor detail against the rest of Kerys, her body, her spirit, and her personality.

  “I told you that this would happen, Aristial,” she said in a sharp, accusatory voice. “You can’t just let the children run loose like this!”

  “I wasn’t just letting them run loose,” said Ari. “They have so much energy. I just thought that it made sense to put it to use.”

  “Aristial Stoneblood!” snapped Kerys. “This is the third time that this has happened. The Weatherblight aren’t the only threat out here. One of them could fall into a sinkhole or run into a predator of some kind.”

  Ari winced and glanced over at Eva, who slowly shook her head.

  “She was in the middle of a pack of coyotes when he found her,” said Eva.

  “You traitor,” muttered Ari. “You could have left that detail out, you know.”