Page 16 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
Kase resisted the urge to run a hand through his hair. A Cerl soldier might very well be awaiting them as soon as they turned the corner, and here he was, daydreaming about the fictional survival stories he’d read in the library at Shackley Manor.
He turned to his right to tell Hallie, knowing she’d appreciate his gallows humor—but all he found waiting for him was darkness.
Kase shook his head and followed Hallie’s father forward.
As they approached the bend, Stowe retrieved the machete attached to his pack. He held it loosely in his right hand. Kase cocked his electropistol, sparks flickering to life at the end of the barrel.
Anxiety clawed further up his throat. I’m using this weapon to defend myself. If I don’t, I could be hurt.
The tightness eased slightly.
“I’ll go first, but make sure you fire true if it’s one of them blasted Trips.” Stowe’s voice was as cold as ice.
Trips. A nickname coined by the mountain folk for those marked with the triple interwoven diamond tattoos on the necks of Cerl soldiers. Kase had seen the symbol too frequently as of late.
Not only had he fought Cerls on Tasava, the Yalven continent, and in the battle of Myrrai where they’d killed Zeke with their fiery, near-magical blue bullets; but only days earlier, he and Hallie had been betrayed by Yarrow, the trapper who’d been hiding his identity at the behest of General Marcus Correa. He’d been a Cerl soldier working against them the entire time, all to save a brother who was already dead.
A Cerl himself…yet Yarrow met his end at the hands of the Cerl king and Essence-wielder, King Filip.
Kase gripped his pistol tighter.
Stowe slipped around the corner, his machete held out, ready to swing at any attacker. Kase flew behind him, finger poised on the trigger.
Kase halted. The light wasn’t a Cerl.
It wasn’t even a wayward traveler or a pack of crickets or the sunlight.
A large rock formation sprouted from the stone below and fanned out in a glittering, glowing cluster. Each crystal jutted out from the center base and narrowed to a point that could pierce the thickest hover hull. The cluster pulsed with soft golden light, but swirls of darkness fluttered through each crystal, making it flicker. The entire thing was nearly as tall as Kase.
Above it, the cavern ceiling reached so high Kase couldn’t see the top. The walls and floor were just as craggy and unkempt as the tunnels behind, but it was the gem cluster in the room’s center that commanded both Kase and Stowe’s attention.
“What is that?” Kase whispered, still not relaxing his grip on the electropistol.
Stowe hooked his machete through the reinforced leather loop and turned up his lantern.
“It’s raw Zuprium. Biggest chunk I ever seen. But it ain’t supposed to glow like that.”
Kase uncocked his electropistol. “What do you mean, it’s not supposed to glow like that?”
Stowe lowered the lantern to the floor and stepped forward, closing in on the cluster. “Looks diseased.”
“I’d say lethal. Wouldn’t want that aimed at my head.”
Stowe shrugged, and Kase groaned inwardly. If he’d stayed with Hallie, she would’ve laughed—even out of pity—or swiped back with a quip. Instead, he’d left her behind to wander the mountains with a farm boy.
Shocks. Kase was terrible at this relationship thing, if he could even call it that. No wonder his fling with Lavinia Richter had ended before it even started…and now she was dead, killed by the Cerls.
He’d merely thought Lavinia was a means to an end. What would the consequence be for loving Hallie?
Kase attempted to relax his coiled back muscles. I cannot control others’ actions.I can only take responsibility for my own.
He clenched his jaw tightly before unclenching it again. I cannot control others’ actions.I can only take responsibility for my own.
“You okay, son?” Stowe’s voice interrupted Kase’s growing anxiety.
He blinked. “I’m fine.”
“Legend says they blind you right before they burst.” Hallie’s father stretched a hand toward the cluster. If he tripped, the closest spike would impale it. Kase held his breath as Stowe continued, “I didn’t feel hopeless until we saw it. The thing is corrupted, but I don’t know how I know that.”
