Page 140 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
Hallie’s skin prickled and her breath came in short bursts. Her mother no longer had a right to dictate her life. She’d lost that privilege when Hallie had been forced to grow up after her twin brother’s death. “So this is about Kase? Is that it?”
She and the Stradat Lord Kapitan were quite the pair. Blast them both.
“Did you know he stumbled into our tent the other night drunk, hand nearly broken, because he’d been fighting?” Zelda said it with such a superior tone that drove Hallie nuts. But before she could respond, her mother left with a parting, “You’re coming home with us soon as we’re clear to do so.”
And then she closed the flap behind her and didn’t look back.
Drunk? A fight? What in the blazes was her mother talking about? Kase had been under house arrest since he got to Kyvena. How could he have…wait. How had he gotten to the hover then?
Once out in the tunnel, Hallie pressed the heel of her palms to her eyes. Fighting with her mother was stupid, considering where they were and what was happening around them. But Hallie hadn’t picked the fight. Zelda had.
It wasn’t Hallie’s fault her parents pushed her out the door three years ago because they couldn’t deal with their own grief.
Her hand shook as she popped off the cork and downed the headache remedy. The moldy mint flavor didn’t help her control her temper, and it would probably only dull her headache later. She needed to calm down before she headed to the hospital ward. Petra would want to know why she was out of sorts, and Hallie would only bite her head off. Her friend didn’t deserve that—even if she was being hostile about Kase.
She needed to talk to him and get his side of the story. He would have an explanation, she was certain. Then she would find somewhere else to stay. Maybe Fely had room. Petra’s tent was too crowded.
It’d only been a week, and her entire world had been rocked to the core and turned inside out all over again.
Well, maybe two weeks. Because Hallie had somehow lost control of the time or something.
No one could explain that.
If they didn’t figure whatever puzzle or prophecy or legend out before the floating Yalvar fuel drowned them, there would be no more Yalvara. Even saying that in the privacy of her own thoughts sounded absolutely blasting ridiculous.
She needed to research, but Myrrai was out of the question, as was the University library. Petra had said it’d been pretty much burned to the ground.
She elbowed and shouldered her way through the crowds. There were so many who had to suffer along the edges of the tunnels, and now with the threat of the cave-ins and the possible end of the world, Hallie didn’t know what their fate would be. With each day that passed, it became clearer than ever that they couldn’t stay forever. They needed to go back above. Soon.
The ones who’d been lucky enough to secure better lodgings probably would refuse until all threats were neutralized, but without the full might of the Crews, Jayde didn’t stand a chance. It could be weeks or months before the Cerls gave up. Jayde couldn’t last that long. The flyovers were an effective siege.
According to gossip, there’d been another one yesterday, but no bombs had been dropped. Probably just surveillance. Still made the more unsavory characters start taking bets on which tunnels would be hit next.
The closer she got to the central cavern, the further down into the planet she went. More and more people seemed to be milling about, which gave Hallie hope that the casualties weren’t so terrible as first believed, that Kase had in fact made a difference.
Most of the cavern had been cleaned up, but the Stradat Lord Kapitan had been forced to move to another part of it, though he hadn’t left the central cavern. The site of the latest cave-in had been roped off. Soldiers warned people away from the rift. Anyone with sense stayed far away from the bulbousblack entity floating up like a specter from the hole. It didn’t look like it had grown any in the days Hallie had been away, but it still lorded itself over the cavern…and smelled horrible.
The oddest part of it all was that Hallie seemed to be the only one who cared about the stench. Other people eyed it warily, but it looked as if most people hadn’t bothered to move their temporary lodgings. The wealthier class of Kyvena stayed inside their carved-out homes lining the walls. Too proud to move to the sides of corridors or the lesser caverns it seemed, even if it smelled like burning flesh.
Hallie didn’t know whether to give them credit for sticking it out or not.
More concerning were the new patients in the hospital ward Petra had attended to yesterday that claimed some of the Yalvar fuel had come up through another crack nearby. They said they hadn’t touched it, and as their skin was still intact, the medics and Petra believed they’d just breathed in too many fumes. Why else would it make them feel sick?
A mystery to be solved soon, Hallie thought.
The only positive about the cave-in was that a portion of the ceiling had indeed collapsed on the Stradat Lord Kapitan’s tent, which allowed the morning sun to shine through. Wasn’t good for security’s sake, but seeing the sun for the first time in three days did wonders for her spirit.
Maybe if Kase was released from house arrest, they could sneak out for an hour. She could smell the fresh air, hear the birds, and watch the wind blow the leaves in the trees. Hallie could also show him Navara’s journal and see what he made of it.
Stars, she would be happy with five minutes.
Kase’s note had said his tent was in a smaller cavern just off the larger one. Just which cavern was a mystery. Instead of giving more detailed directions, he’d drawn her a picture of whatshe assumed was both of them in a hover. She could only guess that because one of the rudimentary stick people in the oval shaped thing with wings had curly hair. She’d thought the other stick person had a braid, maybe. It hadn’t been too clear.
He asked if she could give him sketching lessons and said he would keep sending her abysmal, rather frightful doodles until she did.
It’d made her smile at the very least, but he hadn’t made good on that threat yet.
She passed by what appeared to be the Stradat Lord Kapitan’s new tent. Soldiers armed with swords and flashpistols stood at the ready—all five of them. They were not taking any chances, it seemed. Besides a few City Council members, Harlan was the sole Jaydian leader who’d survived the attack on Kyvena, and if the rumors she’d heard passing amongst the populace was to be believed, he survived because he’d been in the dungeons awaiting his execution.
