Page 100 of Stars May Burn

KASTEN

Two days. I had two days to get through my endless list of administration before all my time would be wasted by the king and Prince Stirling in Adenburg.

I wished I could spend every second of it with Sophie instead. But I’d insisted on handling the logistics of distributing Callum’s next batch of kryalcomy personally. It wasn’t worth the risk of the wrong person finding out about our devices and telling the king. I trusted every person within Kasomere’s regiment, but my commanders still kept the system tightly regulated, as we couldn’t afford to take chances. Since we were about to recruit more people to our ranks, we had to be more careful than ever. I wanted everything connected with the army to be seamless for Sophie in my absence, even if it was just for a week.

I glanced at the wooden box on my table, the new sedative nestled inside. She was a genius. Her concoction would change everything. The king and Maegistrium wouldn’t be able to ignore halfsouls brought right to them. I just needed Lord Lyrason to provide them. Even better if I was already in Adenburg when he released them.

Who would have thought Sophie would give me the missing piece to bring him down.

Sophie….

I slapped the desk to snap my attention back to my work. Why was it so hard to be away from her, even when I saw her every day? Even war and murderers weren’t enough of a distraction.

Sir Tristan burst into the room without knocking. I looked up in surprise as the breeze from the door dislodged my supply lists. “What is it?” His expression told me it was nothing good.

“It sounds really bad, General. The Red Men have sent an emergency message?—”

I cut him off with my hand. “I already told them I was stopping all contact and I wouldn’t help them?—”

“General, twenty-five of them were taken by Lord Lyrason. That’s basically all of their core members, and he’s turning them out onto the street one by one—changed. They say it’s a warning. Retribution for the assassination attempt. But twenty-five. There’s going to be a lot of civilian casualties if we don’t do something.”

Twenty-five. Those idiots, I had always warned them they were going to get themselves killed. There was no way I was going to be able to save them. If I broke into Lord Lyrason’s manor with no evidence to free criminals, it could start a civil war. I had done what I could for them. I owed them nothing.

Twenty-five. I cursed under my breath. This wasn’t what I wanted. We needed two halfsouls. Twenty-five was going to be chaos.

I pinched the bridge of my nose as I considered. Should I pass this time? I knew it was foolish to get between Lord Lyrason and the Red Men when things had escalated so far. Who knew, if I stayed away, maybe Lord Lyrason would finally get caught without my intervention to clear up his mess? This much destruction wouldn’t stay hidden. But Sir Tristan was right. There were going to be a lot of casualties if we did nothing, and we’d been dispatching soulless and halfsouls for years while the city guard did nothing.

‘If you continue to interfere, I will have to kill you, your wife, and your friend.’

I was sure that note had been from Lord Lyrason. And a direct threat from him could only mean we were finally getting somewhere. I made him feel vulnerable. Sophie and Callum should be safe enough under guard in Kasomere, and hopefully, I would bring down Lord Lyrason before he could retaliate.

I had to be fast and finish this. If we went to Adenburg now, it would be to end this once and for all. We could capture two and kill the rest.

I rubbed my hand down my face. “Send four scouts now so we can locate the targets quickly. I’ll leave within the hour. We need to be subtle. I’ll ride with the main guard of ten. I want you to follow in an hour with ten more of the elite guard. Keep off the main road. Meet at the townhouse. If this mess is still going on tomorrow, organize for another ten soldiers to arrive in the morning and ten more in the afternoon. All should have two full sets of devices.”

He bowed. “I’ll arrange it at once.” He hesitated. “And if this takes more than two days? It sounds like Lord Lyrason is aiming for effect here, if he’s releasing them slowly.”

I sighed. “I hope to end this before then, but keep my men alert. If we fail to capture two to take as evidence in the first two nights, I’m due in Adenburg anyway. I’m going to be busy at the palace during the day, but we can still work at night. Thirty men should be enough to take shifts. Tell Sir Egbert to increase the soldiers’ training schedule while I’m away and add halfsoul training as well as the usual techniques against the soulless. I want both Sophie and Callum to have extra guards day and night.”

Sir Tristan bowed and left. I glanced out the window to see if I could spot Sophie in the gardens. What little time we had together was already being stolen from us. But it would only be nine or ten days in Adenburg, then I would make it up to her for leaving early.

Things were starting to work between us, and I would find time for us, whatever it took. I still couldn’t believe she might have genuine feelings for me.

I considered telling Sophie about Lord Lyrason’s note—since I was most definitely about to interfere with his affairs again—but pushed the thought aside. She needed to concentrate on her father, and I didn’t want to give her another thing to worry about, not when I was going to stop Lord Lyrason once and for all.

I grabbed my coat and attached all my spare reserves under my shirt, anticipation already making my blood hum.

Once I had the evidence against Lord Lyrason, I would find out what sort of a man my father was once and for all.

I arrived in Highfair at dusk. Lord Lyrason’s halfsouls always appeared after nightfall, so the timing was perfect. We still had so many questions. What was he doing to turn them in the first place and why? Why release them into the city at all? And how did they get to the various downtown locations they showed up in?

If he was indeed going to release all the Red Men he had taken one at a time, maybe he would overextend himself and give something away.

According to the scouts, two had been released last night four hours apart, but one quickly died of its own accord. The second had been shot down by my soldiers after it killed a civilian. Tonight, one of my men already had two suspected sightings.

We rode through the darkness in unmarked, black clothes, scarves pulled over our noses and mouths to protect them from infected saliva. We hobbled the horses at a central point downtown. I ordered six of my men to go after the strongest halfsoul and try to capture him, and the other four to join the team of scouts combing the area. Lord Lyrason would likely release more tonight, and we needed to catch the halfsouls before they could hurt others and before they weakened. Otherwise, the sedative would kill them before we could transport them. Meanwhile, I would track down and dispatch the second halfsoul by myself. By the scouts’ accounts, it was already too weak for the sedative, but I would assess that myself.

On silent feet, I ran along streets lit by oil lamps, tracking the halfsoul with my detector. They used enough kryalcomy to make a keening sound on the detector, not unlike Kollenstar soulless. However, not enough that a yadum knife would kill them with one blow. Hence why my scouts preferred to distinguish them by inventing the term halfsouls.

---