Shadowborn Read online

  The iceborn clicked its tiny little tongue.

  “Very well,” it said. “I shall spread your message. When shall I return?”

  “Tomorrow night,” Johan said. “And bring word of whatever information my spies have found.”

  The iceborn bowed low again, then turned and leapt atop the long, thin icicle. Its tail wrapped around it twice, and then the creature slid downward, the ice melting after him.

  Johan rose to his feet with a sigh.

  “So many games,” he said, understanding the iceborn’s impatience. “But we are almost there.”

  Five centuries he had pounded at the dome, weakening it enough for him to slip this small, diminutive version of himself through. Five centuries, and after that it had been a mere thirty years of adopting names and faces, exploring the remaining world and sensing its weaknesses before he brought Galen crashing down. Soon Center itself would be no more. What was once a matter of centuries had become a matter of days.

  Johan looked to the stars and grinned at the impotent God he imagined staring down from behind their glittering curtain.

  “Humanity feared your wrath before we ever set foot on this world,” he whispered. “But you are nothing, only a dream, a hope, a vision, a mirage. I am what they should have feared.”

  He left Weshern’s edge, crossing miles with ease to the holy mansion, to once more whisper truths into the ears of the doomed island’s Archon.

  CHAPTER

  17

  Kael found himself in the unenviable position of comparing the dungeon cells of Candren with those of Center. They were equally dark and hidden away from sunlight, and Kael could only guess how deep into the bowels of the enormous island he was stashed. Unlike Candren’s, though, there were no bars or distant lights of guards. Instead he’d awakened in a small cube, every wall and ceiling made up of smooth stone. The only crack he’d found was a straight line embedded into one of the walls, which he guessed to be where the door was. He had no food, no light, and nothing but his Seraphim uniform to keep warm in the oppressive chill. His many cuts itched, and they lacked any sort of bandage or wrapping.

  Where’s Bree when you need her? Kael thought, and he smiled to combat the growing loneliness. At least we could swap bad jokes about how hopeless our situation was.

  Kael sat in a corner, positioned so he faced the hidden door. He huddled his arms and legs to his chest, closed his eyes, and did his best to sleep the time away. His feet softly tapped the floor, the rhythmic sound necessary to keep himself sane. If not for that, all there’d be to hear would be the sound of his heartbeat and the shallow inhalations and exhalations of his breathing. Even worse, he might dare focus on his thoughts. He might focus on the man who had betrayed him: his father.

  Hours passed. How many, he could only guess. Time was but a crawl in this emptiness. How much he slept was equally a mystery. Based on his hunger, though, it couldn’t have been too long. A day maybe?

  At once, a thunderous crack filled the room, followed by blinding light. Kael squinted against it, fighting to see through the tears in his adjusting eyes. He saw the silhouette of a man holding a small lantern. Even that tiny flickering of flame was more than Kael could bear. A deep scraping sound, of stone against stone, marked the closing of the door behind his visitor.

  “I pray you have used this time to humble yourself to the wisdom I come to offer.”

  Kael’s breath froze in his lungs. His heart thundered in his chest. That voice, that painfully familiar voice … the voice of his father, addressing him without greeting, without love. It was a tender knife, a wonderful familiarity and a terrible realization of the gulf now between them.

  “Not really,” Kael said. “Mostly I’ve just slept.”

  Liam set the lantern down as he sat opposite him in the other corner. Neither spoke for a long while, each soaking in the changes of the other. Kael looked upon the face of his father, now bald and marked by seemingly countless swirling tattoos. He saw wrinkles where there’d been none before. He saw the eyes that had once looked upon him with love, and he searched for that same affection. It was there, it had to be. No matter what his father had endured, surely the memories remained?

  “It is … it is good to see you again, Kael,” Liam said. Every word hung with hesitance. “You’ve grown strong in my absence.”

  “Seraphim training will do that to you,” Kael said. He tried to keep the hurt out of his speech. It did not help him, not now. He tried to think on what to ask. So many questions he needed answered, but one in particular stood out above all the others.

  “Why did you abandon us?” he asked. “We thought you were dead.”

  Liam rested his head against the wall. His eyes looked to the ceiling, unable to meet Kael’s gaze.

  “In many ways, I was dead,” he said. “With my new position as a knight, I had to cleanse away the weaknesses and distractions of my old life. A painful sacrifice, I assure you, and not a day went by without wishing to look upon your faces.”

  “So that’s all we were to you?” Kael asked. “Distractions?”

  “Don’t belittle yourselves,” Liam snapped. “You’re a Seraph now. You know you’ve had to make your own sacrifices. Devoting a life to God is the noblest of goals, above serving a nation or a ruler. I laid my love of you and your sister upon an altar so that nothing lay between me and the God I serve. I trusted you to live on, to follow in my stead as worthy Seraphim of Weshern.” He looked to Kael. “Instead you turned your back upon all I taught you.”

  “What parts did you teach that we dishonor?” Kael asked. “To worship madmen? To believe lies and accept abuse? Can’t say I remember those lessons.”

  “You think yourself wrapped in the truth?” Liam asked. “You’d say that while following the heretical words of Johan?”

  The conversation was spiraling out of control. Kael wanted nothing more than to scream and cry. Here he was, meeting his long-lost father, and all he could do was argue and spew bitterness and venom? Where was the comforting embrace? Where was the shared remembrance of all their times together?

  “Why are you here?” he asked, fighting to remove his anger and speak honestly. “Are you here to berate me? Tell me I disappointed you? If so, then you’ve done it. Leave me alone, unless you just want to hurt me worse.”

  Liam sat down across from Kael, crossing his legs beneath him and leaning against one of the walls. He stared intently, and Kael could see the intense debate raging inside. Did he have anything left to say? Or would it just be more regurgitated propaganda of the Speaker?

  “I’ve never forgotten the day I lost your mother,” he said. A hitch immediately hit Kael’s lungs. His father’s words had suddenly grown soft. This wasn’t belligerent. This wasn’t more theological convincing. This was a confession. “We thought Galen’s Seraphs would be chased away by our show of strength. We’d had small skirmishes before, petty duels and such, but never a meeting of our full Seraphim forces. When they issued their nighttime challenge, we thought it was all bluster. Until the elements began to fly.”

  “We watched the battle,” Kael said when his father fell silent for a moment. “Me and Bree, we snuck out to the island’s edge. It was … overwhelming.”

  He didn’t mention the fear he’d felt. Didn’t mention how badly he’d begged God to spare his parents during the chaos.

  “Yes, it was overwhelming,” Liam said. “Few of us had experienced anything like it. But Commander Argus led us through. That man … it’s such a shame, the role he’s taken on now. I’d have laid my life down a hundred times to save his back then. We won the initial exchange, and it should have been a slaughter afterward. But then the bastards …” He sighed and shook his head. “Galen fled, not to their own island, but above ours. Hesitance in battle is a killer, Kael. That’s what they did to us, flying over homes so we knew that if our shots missed we might take an innocent life. It was a cowardly move, and one that shows why it’s so important Center oversee our conflicts. Marius
banned the maneuver the very next day, did you know that? He’s a wise man, a holy man, and he knew that we’d destroy ourselves trying to find the slightest advantage.”

  Kael remembered cowering in an alleyway as fire and lightning rained down upon Lowville. It was hard to argue with the cruelty of the strategy.

  “Did you see how Mom died?” he asked. He’d long desired the answer but always been too afraid to ask the surviving Seraphim who’d flown with them.

  Liam wiped at his eyes and nodded.

  “Our elements were running low, yet neither side had signaled surrender. Your mother and I resorted to our blades.” His entire body shuddered with his deep breath. “She closed in to melee with another Seraph and missed her first block. His blade cut across her stomach. I knew it was lethal, Kael. I saw it and just knew. She fled the battle immediately, making her way toward home.”

  Liam closed his eyes and leaned his head against the cold stone. He took in several long, slow breaths, his lips murmuring a quiet mantra or prayer. Kael didn’t mind the break. He’d seen his mother’s body before they’d taken her away, seen the gash across her stomach and the pool of blood building beneath her. It was an image he’d struggled to banish from his mind ever since.

  “Cassandra was everything to me,” Liam said, eyes still closed. “When I watched her cut down, my mind went blank. All I saw was blood. Understand I mean no insult when I say I didn’t want to live through the battle. My beloved Cassandra, opened like a pig at a butcher’s shop. I’d rather perish in combat than endure the sorrow I knew would follow when the fight ended. To be alone with my thoughts?” He chuckled bitterly. “No, I’d have rather died, so that’s what I tried to do. I crashed into the man who killed Cassandra. No swords. No element. I just slammed us together and took us both to the ground.”

  Liam’s eyes opened, and he stared at his hands.

  “I don’t know how I survived. I shouldn’t have. When we hit ground I blacked out from the pain. The vultures were hovering over me when I came to, and I think they were as surprised as I was that I was still alive. Theotechs bundled me into a sling and carried me to the surgeons in Heavenstone. I remember all of it, every second of that hellish trip. I’d broken four fingers, my left arm, my left clavicle, and three ribs. I kept coughing blood. Even the slightest sway of their sling increased the pain tenfold. They thought I’d still die. I heard them talk among themselves. I was a dead man, they said. My body just didn’t know it yet.”

  Kael shifted in his seat, growing increasingly uncomfortable.

  “Marius came to me as I recovered,” Liam said. “He told me there was a reason I had survived, and it was to grant me a new life with a higher purpose. I could cleanse my heart and become one of his most trusted knights, ensuring that the carnage of the battle we fought would never be repeated. So I accepted. I wanted the hurt to go away. That’s all I wanted, but he granted me far more. In Heavenstone I found my place, and it felt like home more than Weshern ever did.”

  “A shame you couldn’t come to your old home,” Kael said. “I’m glad the Speaker managed to replace us as well.”

  “You were never replaced,” Liam said, his eyes starting to swell with tears. “You were ever a source of pride. And I did want to say good-bye, but the theotechs told me that you and Bree believed I was dead. I … I thought in some ways that was better. Why not let you grieve and move on? And I was dead, Kael. Deep down, I was broken, and I thought I couldn’t be fixed. But Marius brought me back to life. He never let me wallow in pity. He never coddled me, never let me pretend I was better or worse than I was. Day after day he took time from his schedule to sit down and speak to me. Sometimes he’d listen to my grief, other times he’d lecture me on the need to harden my heart lest it bleed forever. And in time, I did heal. I had a purpose, a life, a blessing.”

  “Yet you never came back to us,” Kael said. “You hid here and made yourself feel better while we grew up without you. I’m sorry, father, but you’re not going to earn my pity because of that.”

  “I don’t want your pity,” Liam snapped. “I want your understanding. Marius is a good man, a holy man. He cares for the lives of all his citizens, not just those on Center. None grieved worse for Galen’s fall than he. All we’ve done, we’ve done to save Weshern from itself. And yet you’ve rebelled against wisdom. You’ve swallowed the words of the heretical Johan in a bid to elevate yourselves, thereby denying the very order God created when he spared us from oblivion during the Ascension.”

  Kael laughed. He couldn’t help it. What had become of his father? That calm, quiet dignity he’d possessed had been warped into a sick version of faithfulness and loyalty. Liam saw his laugh and misinterpreted it as mockery.

  “Do you not understand the situation you’re in?” Liam asked. “A death sentence hangs over your head, but there is still a chance for your survival. Like me, you can find a second life and a new purpose. Repent your deeds. Acknowledge the divine nature of the Speaker, and vow to fight against heretics of his holy word. This war is ending, and I believe Marius will soon offer peace. Put the conflict behind you, and open your heart to the one true way.” He offered his hand. “You can be at my side, Kael. No more hiding. No more secrets.”

  Kael’s body shivered while his mind froze. His stomach twisted and looped knot into knot into knot. For years he’d dreamed his father had survived and they could be a family again. With his every accomplishment he’d wondered if his father watched him from afar, proud of all he’d done. But to betray his island, his own sister, to achieve that dream?

  “No,” he said. “I will never abandon Bree. I will never acknowledge the Speaker as holy. He’s a liar speaking only for himself.”

  “You’re wrong,” Liam said, voice rising. “Listen to me, Kael. Listen, and repent! I know he speaks for the angels, for I have seen them with my own two eyes!”

  Kael had to fight to keep down his bitter laugh.

  “I’ve seen them, too,” he said, taking mild pleasure in his father’s surprise. “I spoke with L’fae in the heart of Weshern and with A’resh hidden below Candren’s Clay Cathedral. I’ve listened to their words. I’ve witnessed the Ascension through their eyes. I know the truth, and I know the truth is not what Marius delivered to us. He’s lied, time and time again, to hide the angels’ existence. He’s locked away their wisdom to keep it in his hands alone. He’s not a holy man, father. Not even close. And now his pride threatens us all with extinction at the hands of the shadowborn.”

  The reference to the shadowborn shook Liam’s composure. Kael sensed his father’s wavering resolve. It was so close to breaking. Deciding his father had had enough time on the offensive, Kael rose to his feet. His turn.

  “Don’t you see what you’ve become?” he asked. “What they’ve taken away from you? You lost your son and daughter, and for what? To become a killer in the Speaker’s name? Marius labeled us heretics and ordered our deaths, yet our only challenge was the divine nature of his words. If you’ve seen the angels, then you know where they are. You know the suffering they’re enduring. The theotechs have buried them in secrets and lies below their cathedrals, locking away their words. They did it for power, father. When the shadowborn comes we should be united in our stand. Instead Marius has left us fractured. The dome protecting us was cracking. What warning did Marius give us? The Speaker forced our ignorance to what it might mean. Fireborn fell from the sky, yet Marius had the knights that were sworn to protect us instead abandon us to our fate. His secrets are ripping us apart. His lies are destroying the unity we desperately need. We must be fighting the shadowborn, not each other!”

  The statement shocked Liam into silence. He stared at Kael as if they were suddenly strangers. Perhaps they were.

  “For a very long time I wondered why the Speaker was so insistent I never make contact with you and your sister,” he said. His voice sounded dull, almost dead. “And now I understand. Your rebellion is key to the shadowborn’s return. Why else would you be so ble
ssed by the blood of demons?”

  Nothing could disguise Kael’s hurt.

  “Blessed by demons?” he said. “Is that what you believe?”

  “You don’t deny it?”

  Kael shook his head.

  “No. There is no point. Leave me be. I’d rather sit in darkness than be reminded of all I lost.”

  Liam rose to his feet, and he brushed dust off his uniform.

  “Consider your wish granted. You’re to be dropped into a well tomorrow morning during a small military ceremony. I’m sorry, Kael, but I did my best to save you. This is the only fate you deserve.”

  Hardly surprising, but Kael felt slapped by the news anyway.

  “Will you be there?” he asked. “Or will you turn your back on me again?”

  Liam opened the door to the cell, and he blew out the light of his lantern, blanketing them both in darkness.

  “You never understood the strength and dignity of the faithful,” he said. “I won’t just be there for your execution, Kael. I’ll be the one holding your rope.”

  CHAPTER

  18

  I guess I should not be surprised by the number of friends you convinced to rush headlong into danger,” Johan said as Bree landed. Her four companions fanned out behind her as if attempting to maintain a safe distance from the man. They quickly shut off their wings, for in the early night their glow would be visible for miles.

  “They’re here because they’re Kael’s friends, not mine,” Bree said. She left out the part where she’d been in tears upon asking Chernor and Amanda.

  “Is that so?” Johan looked past her to the four. Chernor stood in their middle, arms crossed and looking openly cautious of Johan. Saul and Amanda kept to his left, the two fidgeting nervously. It was the last of the four that pulled a reaction out of Johan.

  “Clara Willer,” he said, softly laughing. “Imagine the fervor if it were discovered you snuck off Weshern for a desperate gambit on Center.”