Page 194 of Swords of Soul and Shadow
Motion caught her attention, and she caught Fely playing with her locket, the one that held the Soul she took.
Soul.
Kase said only moments ago it felt like the Cerl hover was part of him. What if they didn’t run on electricity and Yalvar fuel like she’d assumed? What if they ran on something else? The Cerl pistols had still worked in Myrrai when the electropistols had not. Kase’s new hover worked despite the electricity not working in Kyvena.
What if the secret Ezekiel sold the Cerls wasn’t about electricity at all?
“The Cerl weapons,” Hallie whispered. “They work using Soul?”
Harlan simply nodded. Kase, still pale and perplexed, asked, “What do you mean?”
Jove said, “Uncle Ezekiel created Soul Technology, which is what the Cerl weapons and hovers use.” Jove walked to the other side of the space, as if to leave. He paused and turned. “And in the end, he begged for death.”
Hallie’s heart thrummed in her ears. “So the story about him being a traitor?”
Surely it wasn’t what she thought. Surely, there was another explanation, but Kase’s father didn’t offer much of one. “He wasn’t in his right mind.”
Hallie blinked. “Kind of like what happens to Zuprium miners?”
The Stradat Lord Kapitan cleared his throat. “Yes.”
“So why sell the story that he committed treason?” Kase asked.
Hallie couldn’t tell what his exact thoughts were, but he was still clutching her hand like he’d crumble if she let go. She leaned closer. The story of Ezekiel Fairchild was one of tragedy, certainly, but to beg for death…what exactly had he done to discover that you could use Soul, your very spirit, to fuel weapons? Hovers?
“He did commit treason.” The Stradat Lord Kapitan pressed his thumb and forefinger to his eyes. “And we tried to cover up his tracks.”
“The Queen.” Hallie knew she was right even before she said it. It just made sense. Why else would the Jaydian government assassinate her? Whether or not they knew she was an Essence wielder, she had been the leader of the Cerl engineering corps, but that was it.
Harlan let out a shaky breath. “The war needed to end quickly, and the easiest way to do it was to kill the only Cerl who knew about Soul Tech.”
“Why her? Was it because she was the Essence of Souls?” Hallie asked.
Harlan shook his head. If Hallie were to describe the moment she stood there, clinging to Kase as much as he did to her, it would be the breath one held before taking a plunge into a lake of ice. The air was no longer laden with the truth; it thinned as if they stood atop the highest peak in the Nardens. The world narrowed to a point.
“Because they were lovers. Killing her ended the war, but it also ended Ezekiel.” Unsteadily, the Stradat Lord Kapitan straightened his uniform and arranged his features back into his mask of indifference tinged with what Hallie had always figured was anger. But it wasn’t, not this time. This time, it was defeat. “And I have spent the last fifteen years trying to make up for his mistakes.”
And then he left, leaving the rest of the group in stunned silence.
Kase
KASE DIDN’T REALLY KNOW WHAT to think. Everything he’d learned from his father in that tunnel was in the past, and it shouldn’t have mattered any longer, but it was still a part of Kase. It was still his history; still his burden to bear, even fifteen years later.
Vaguely, Kase had known he resembled his Fairchild ancestors. He had gained nothing from the Shackley side except maybe his temper, which Hallie had pointed out. Funny the only thing he’d gotten from his father was the worst thing about him. Funny wasn’t the right word at all, but when you lived the life he had, well, funny was the only word you could use.
Kase crushed Hallie’s hand in his, but she didn’t seem to mind. He dreaded the moment he’d have to let go.
He needed to get out of this tunnel.
Kase and Jove had demanded an answer, and for once, Harlan had given it; yet it made Kase feel even worse than before. It didn’t solve anything at all. It only made him feel bitter. Bitter that it was his uncle’s choices that had ruinedKase’s life. It wasn’t his fault. Ezekiel Fairchild had set him on this path, and Kase never had a chance to do anything to fix it.
Jove left shortly after. All he got from his eldest brother was, “Sorry, Kase.”
Shocks, he needed to be up in the air. Immediately.
Hallie whispered something to Saldr and Fely before dragging Kase down the tunnel after his brother. He barely paid attention to where she led him. All he could think about was the hover.
It was siphoning off hissoulto fly. He’d known something was different about it, he’d known it ran on something other than Yalvar fuel, but this…he hadn’t imagined this.
