Reborn Raiders (The Weatherblight Saga Book 4) Read online

  “Coyotes?” Kerys took a step forward and jabbed her index finger into Ari’s chest. “Fuscia was being attacked by coyotes, and you still say that it makes sense to let the kids roam free?”

  “Listen to me,” said Ari. “We’re barely scraping by as it is. If Fuscia had stuck with her partner, like she was supposed to, then—”

  “Dormiar’s breath, Ari!” shouted Kerys. “This can’t happen again. Someone needs to be watching them during the day. We can’t keep making the same mistake over and over again just because you’ve forgotten the kind of trouble children on the loose can get into.”

  “Kerys…”

  Ari reached a hand out to set on her shoulder, but Kerys spun around and stomped off down the tunnel. He sighed and scratched his head instead. Her reaction would have seemed overblown, if not for who she was, and what she’d been through.

  He’d failed to protect Kerys, and she’d lost her hand because of it. Ari could imagine how easy it was for her to see a similar fate befalling one of the children. He was responsible for more people now than just her and Eva, and if anything, the odds of an injury or even death among their group were higher than they’d ever been before.

  “She’s right, lad,” said Durrien.

  “I know she’s right,” said Ari. “The thing is, I’m also right. We need everyone we can get either foraging and hunting. On top of that, the kids already know about keeping an eye out for potential food sources, and hester blossom, too. Letting them roam might seem dangerous, but I think it also helps us in the long run.”

  “Would you have let yourself run around unsupervised at such a young age?” asked Durrien.

  Ari hesitated. His mother had died early in his childhood, and he more or less had been on his own during that time frame. Of course, being unsupervised in the Hollow was different from running around the Draketongue Steppe.

  “Why is it that this decision is being foisted onto me, again?” asked Ari. “I’ve suggested before that we all sit down and come up with rules, as a group.”

  Durrien let out a small chuckle. “We’ve already done that. But somebody has to be the enforcer.”

  “Care to take a stab at it in my place?” asked Ari.

  “I’m just an old man,” said Durrien. “You are the lord of this settlement, after all.”

  Ari scowled. “Enough with that. I’m serious. I didn’t ask for this responsibility.”

  “If responsibility worked like that, none of us would ever have any at all,” said Durrien. “Lad, you were the one who brought us all here. You’re the one with the magic tower and the enchanted sword. Pardon, milady.”

  He gave Eva a respectful bow, and she smiled and waved a dismissive hand.

  “My point is,” continued Durrien, “you have to strike a balance between trusting your instincts and trusting the group. I don’t think there is a way for you to lead properly without managing to do both.”

  Durrien patted Ari on the back and then headed down the tunnel. Ari sighed and stretched his arms over his shoulders.

  “Your turn,” he said, to Eva. “I know you still have at least half an opinion to offer.”

  Eva’s smile grew a little wider. She stepped in closer to him and gave him a soft, slow kiss.

  “I know you have been doing your best,” she said. “Just spend more time listening and try to communicate your thought process a little better.”

  “I can do that,” said Ari. “You know, it was a lot easier for me to make decisions back when it was just me, you, and Kerys.”

  “Perhaps that was because when you made a mistake, the scope was far more limited?” asked Eva.

  Ari rolled his eyes. “Yeah, maybe.”

  “I will take first watch tonight, milord,” said Eva. “How about you go patch things up with Lady Kerys?”

  Ari nodded to her and started down the tunnel. The interior of Etheria reminded him of the gathering chamber in Golias Hollow, except on a much larger scale. The ward lights gave off pure white illumination compared to the bluish glow moss of the Hollow, and the arena’s shape was much more uniform, but the essence of the two places struck a similar chord in his heart.

  It was the way the roof curved overhead and the way noise echoed throughout the space. It was in the air, the way scents tended to linger, for better or for worse. Most of all, it was in the people, in the way Ari could look around the massive space and get an immediate sense of what was going on in the community.

  Rows of long, curved benches encircled the inside edge of Etheria’s walls, ascending upward, each one higher than the last. Ari could imagine how crowds of thousands could have once filled them and watched whatever entertainment was taking place below. The seating areas were broken into segments, each with a doorway leading into a chamber built underneath, like a room built into the space underneath a set of stairs.

  It was in these chambers that Ari and the others had focused most of their efforts on cleaning and furnishing. The tower stood across from the tunnel, in the very back of the arena, but it couldn’t house all thirteen members of the settlement. Kerys, Grena, and the children all slept inside, since it was the most hospitable and comfortable space they currently had, but everybody else had taken to sleeping in one of the underchambers.

  Ari and Eva shared one, sleeping side by side on a makeshift mattress to keep off the cold stone floor. There was no proper door to close them off from the rest of Etheria, which had forced them to keep their nighttime activities restrictively quiet. There’d been fewer of those trysts than Ari had wanted, given that the watch often fell to him or Eva.

  The search for Fuscia had interrupted the community’s usual dinner time. Kerys had brought the cooking pot out into the main chamber and was in the process of ladling stew into handmade clay bowls for the children. The four Ravarian children were joined by Selene, who still hadn’t said more than a word or two in the time that Ari had known her.

  Ari frowned, realizing that he still hadn’t seen Virgil since arriving back at the settlement. This more than likely meant that he was still out searching for Fuscia, unaware that she’d been found. He turned around and started to head back toward the tunnel, only to see the boy in question strolling into the arena, one hand resting on the rough club he carried in his belt.

  Virgil had dusty brown hair, along with the slim physique and slender features common to the Sai. He and his sister were anomalies, having only been re-embodied a little over a month earlier. For more than three centuries prior, they’d been mesmers, unaware of themselves and their own existence, and in a very real sense, they’d been dropped back into a world that they no longer belonged to.

  “Lord Stoneblood!” Virgil’s back straightened when he saw Ari, and he hurried over. “I apologize, milord! I couldn’t find her, and it was starting to get too dark for me to keep looking.”

  Virgil brought his fist over his heart in salute as he approached. Ari resisted the urge to roll his eyes as he returned the gesture. Virgil was earnest almost to a fault. After their somewhat volatile first meeting, he’d taken to treating Ari as an authority with enthusiasm, despite the fact that in Virgil’s time, Ari would have never been seen as anything more than a slave.

  “It’s okay, Virgil,” said Ari. “We found her.”

  “Oh, thank the Trium,” said Virgil. “I hope Grena or Lady Kerys gave her a proper scolding for running off and worrying everyone.”

  “Well, someone was certainly scolded over it,” said Ari.

  Virgil nodded, though he didn’t seem to pick up on Ari’s meaning. The two of them began walking toward the tower. The adults usually didn’t take their food until after the children had had their fill, but Ari still enjoyed being around them as they ate.

  “I did find something of value,” said Virgil. “It’s small, but I think Amber still might be able to use it.”

  Virgil opened his hand and held out a small flower. It was a hester blossom, and it instantly brought a smile to Ari’s face. It was an alchemy ingredie
nt crucial to Amber’s work in making Weathersense potions, which were one of the most important tools at Ari’s disposal when it came to protecting the settlement.

  The flowers were incredibly scarce, and the only other one they’d found over the past month had been covered in spots of mold that had rendered it useless. Ari let out a whistle as he accepted the hester blossom from Virgil.

  “Good work, Virgil!” he said. “Were there any more around that you saw?”

  Virgil beamed in light of Ari’s praise and gave a reluctant shake of his head.

  “Not that I could see,” he said. “I was using my mystica to part bushes in case Fuscia had decided to play the hiding game the children seem so fond of. It was almost hidden by a patch of weeds. I suppose I could see if any others are growing in the same manner nearby.”

  “Tomorrow, then,” said Ari. “Once we’ve finished foraging for the day.”

  Virgil saluted again, and Ari rolled his eyes and gave him one in return. They made their way over to where Kerys was watching over the children as they ate. From the look on her face, she was still irritated with Ari, so he opted to focus his attention on a more welcoming audience.

  “Hey younglings,” said Ari. “Did you guys have fun today? Are you enjoying dinner?”

  The Ravarian children didn’t understand enough Subvios to know what he was saying, and Selene didn’t respond much when addressed more often than not. Ari grinned at them regardless and made a show of scratching his head and spinning in a goofy circle, which bought him a few laughs.

  “Grena, do you mind watching them for a bit?” asked Kerys. “There’s some wild lettuce outside that I was in the middle of gathering before we started searching for Fuscia.”

  “Hold on,” said Ari. “It’s the middle of the night. Why don’t I go along…?”

  He trailed off as Kerys shot him a glare that could have stripped the rind off a melon.

  “Virgil, can you go with Kerys and make sure she stays safe?” asked Ari.

  Virgil immediately straightened, and a slight flush came to his cheeks.

  “Oh!” he said. “Of course, milord! Assuming Lady Kerys doesn’t overly mind my company, that is.”

  Virgil scratched the back of his head and glanced hopefully in Kerys’ direction. He immediately looked away and blushed even deeper when she made eye contact with him.

  “That would be helpful, Virgil,” said Kerys. “Both to ward off the coyotes that are apparently in our backyard and to help carry the lettuce.”

  “Thank you!” said Virgil. “I mean, uh, it would be my pleasure!”

  He fell into step alongside Kerys, who gave Ari a parting scowl that seemed a little over the top and pouty. He sighed and wondered what it would take this time to get back into her good graces.

  CHAPTER 3

  Ari played with the children for another minute before heading around the edge of the arena, toward the underchamber that Amber and Durrien had taken to sharing over the past few days. They weren’t sharing it with the same close intimacy as he and Eva had been occupying their room but rather out of necessity. The underchambers were drafty, cold, and far too large for a single person to feel comfortable in.

  Amber’s corner of the underchamber was surprisingly messy, with a variety of alchemy ingredients spread out into piles, along with a makeshift mortar and pestle made from a clay bowl and a smooth rock. She was in the middle of scratching notes on the stone of the wall with a piece of chalk, a habit that she’d taken up in lieu of having her notebook on hand.

  Her red hair had grown out a little over the past month, long enough to look like a proper woman’s. Amber was attractive, with a decent amount of curve to her bust and hips, though she didn’t seem to care much for her appearance. She wore a grey tunic over a dark red skirt, and stood barefoot, apparently unaffected by the cold stone floor’s tendency to sap away body heat.

  “I brought you a present,” said Ari. “Check this out.”

  He presented the hester blossom to her with a flourish, as though he’d brought a flower to court her. Amber raised a discerning eyebrow as she looked at it and shrugged. It wasn’t the reaction Ari had been hoping for, but he did earn himself a small smile as she took the flower from his hand.

  “Was there any more?” she asked.

  “No, though Virgil says he’ll keep looking,” said Ari. “How fast can you turn that into a Weathersense potion?”

  “I can’t,” said Amber.

  “What?”

  “It wouldn’t make sense,” said Amber. “For starters, I don’t have the equipment to make a proper attempt at producing more of the potion. I also need more blood from one of the Weatherblight, which by the way, you keep forgetting to gather for me.”

  “Forget is not the right word for it,” said Ari. “I can’t exactly take the time to drain a fisher when I’m trying to keep the monsters from storming into the arena and slaughtering everyone.”

  The weather in the Draketongue Steppe was rather calm compared to most of the other places Ari had brought the tower to, but it had still rained on a handful of nights, forcing him, Eva, Rin, Durrien, and Virgil to hold the doorway. Ari was used to fighting the Weatherblight, but being used to the danger didn’t lessen it. He’d had several recurring nightmares of what might happen, what could have happened, had any of them slipped up for even an instant.

  “Well, my point still stands,” said Amber. “I can still make use of this, but not as an ingredient. It’s possible that I can replant it and maybe even figure out how to seed more from it.”

  “That would be just as helpful,” said Ari. “We’ll get your alchemy equipment back as soon as we’re ready to make a trip back into Cliffhaven.”

  Amber nodded and returned to her work without saying another word. She bent over to set the hester blossom into one of the clay bowls on the floor, and Ari allowed himself an extended view of her rather nice butt before leaving.

  Durrien was standing outside the tower, puffing a rolled sarkin flower stick and looking thoughtful. Ari waved to him as he made his way over and accepted a second smoke stick with a nod, lighting it from the ember of Durrien’s before taking a puff.

  “Did you see Rin earlier?” asked Durrien.

  “No,” said Ari. “Did she join in the search for Fuscia?”

  Durrien shook his head. “She’s still caught up in her new training regimen. It’s ridiculous, what she puts herself through.”

  The old man sighed and tapped his fingers against the sarkin stick, shaking loose a bit of ash.

  “She’s taking it a little far, but she has the right idea,” said Ari. “We can’t grow complacent. Between the Weatherblight and the potential for Diya to find us here, there are threats that we’ll have to fend off. Probably sooner, rather than later.”

  Ari didn’t like thinking about the restored Emperor Diya, who was now the ruler of what, in his estimation, was the largest city on the continent. Central Dominion was a ruined city, populated by thousands of Saidicans who’d been restored to life by the Soul Engine.

  Diya had an army of powerful mages at his disposal and carried with him the legacy of an empire built on the enslavement of both the Hume and the Ravarians. He’d already attacked Varnas-Rav and destroyed the city. It wasn’t a question of if Diya would find their tiny settlement, but when.

  “Still,” said Durrien, “the lengths Rin goes to in the name of her training are less about improvement and more about, well, making herself suffer. Somebody needs to talk to her.”

  Durrien gave him a meaningful look, and it was all Ari could do to keep from swearing aloud. He took another deep puff of his sarkin flower stick, letting himself lean into the mild euphoria.

  “You know her as well as I do,” said Ari, breathing smoke. “You’re her sister’s father, Durrien. She’ll listen to you.”

  He winced, realizing that bringing up Tialese, the Vereshi of the Ravarians, was probably painful for Durrien. She was his daughter, though Durrien had never been abl
e to settle in Varnas-Rav to raise her properly. She was more than likely dead or enslaved, along with the rest of her flock.

  “She won’t listen to me,” said Durrien. “Unfortunately, I believe that I’m the last person she’d take words from. But you, lad. She likes you. More than you realize, I think.”

  Ari sighed and spent a few seconds pretending like he hadn’t heard the old man.

  “Fine,” he said. “Is she up by the drake skull again?”

  “Last I saw,” said Durrien.

  Ari turned to go. Durrien grabbed him by the shoulder and pulled him in close as he did.

  “You’re doing good work here,” he said. “You might hear more about your mistakes from us than you do your successes, but you should be proud of yourself.”

  “Thanks,” said Ari. “Say, how do you roll these so evenly?”

  He held the sarkin flower stick up and wiggled it in between his fingers.

  “There’s a trick to it,” said Durrien. “You have to push down the buds after you’ve gotten the general form.”

  He reached into his pocket and pulled out another, which he set down in Ari’s palm. Ari chuckled and nodded his thanks as he headed back toward the tunnel.

  Eva wasn’t directly outside the entrance to Etheria, but that wasn’t unusual. On nights when the weather was calm, whoever was on watch would often run a patrol around the outer wall, just for the sake of keeping tabs on the surrounding area.

  The drake skull was the same one that Ari, Kerys, and Eva had once camped inside on their first trip through the area. It wasn’t far, and Ari made the trip at a running pace in less than fifteen minutes. Light flickered from a torch inside the skull, giving the empty eye sockets of the massive, deceased creature an ominous, orange hue.

  “Rin?” called Ari. He stepped in through the mouth and immediately spotted her in the center of the skull.

  She’d taken off her tunic and leggings and wore only her underwear. Even so, her body was slick with sweat. Her black hair hung loose across her shoulders, mingling slightly with the dark feathers of her prominent wings.