Page 35 of Swords of Soul and Shadow (Gate Chronicles #3)

IN DIFFERENT WAYS

Kase

AFTER ANOTHER DAY OF FLYING until Kase physically couldn’t continue, they stopped for the night and made camp, after which Kase fell asleep the second his head touched his pack.

He dreamed of the towns he’d bypassed for fear that the Cerls had overtaken them, too; dreams of bodies strewn in the streets and of buildings decimated by bombs.

He relived his dogfight at Nar, except this time he was the one who went up in flames.

The dawn rays burned his lids, and the acrid smell of smoking meat wafted past his nose. Kase jolted awake, wiping dried spittle from his chin with a grimace and clawing around for his electropistol.

“Whoa, there. We’re fine, son,” came Stowe’s voice from a few paces away.

Kase stopped rummaging through his pack and looked up to find Hallie’s father roasting some sort of fish on a spit. The fire was small, and with the early sunlight, the smoke wouldn’t be as noticeable. His breathing slowed.

He pushed himself up and dusted off his trousers. They’d accumulated a collection of dry grass and leaves in the night. “Didn’t know there were fish nearby. I’m starving.”

And he was. Whatever energy he’d gained via the hardtack he’d consumed the day before had dried up with his night of fitful sleep.

Stowe tested the fish with his fingertips.

“There’s a small creek in the woods right through there, not too far.

Kept you in sight while I set up a line.

” He removed the fish from the fire and inspected the meat once more.

After a second or two, he nodded and handed the spit over to Kase. “Yep, should be roasted right good.”

“Thanks.”

Stowe took a swig from his canteen. “No good spices on hand, course, but it’ll hold you over. Filled up your water, too. I’m looking forward to a good meal once we make it to the capital. Heard stories about the fine cuisine.”

Kase bit into the roasted fish, which was really a whole bunch of juicy, slightly charred nothing.

He didn’t have the heart to say how much he hated fish.

He didn’t think it was the taste, necessarily, but rather the smell…

and the fact that while Stowe had removed the fins and the skin, the dead thing still had eyeballs looking at him.

Clearly Hallie had inherited her lack of cooking skills from her father.

He choked it down regardless and prayed he didn’t chuck it up later. Stowe might take his criticism just as well as his daughter had.

“You must be dead on your feet,” Kase said after swallowing another disgusting mouthful. His lack of grimace at that one could’ve earned him a place in the theater. “I would’ve taken over watch.”

Stowe rubbed his bald head, the morning sunlight glinting off the sun-reddened skin there. “I’ll get some shut-eye soon as we’re in that flying contraption. I ain’t seen no one fall over dead asleep as fast as you did last night.”

A small blush warmed the back of Kase’s neck. He coughed through another unsavory bite of fish. “Where’d you get the fishing line?”

Stowe looked back toward the hover. “Say what you want about those Trip soldiers, but they know how to prepare for a journey or two. Found one of them pistols, too. Thing feels evil, though. Left that in the compartment.”

Kase finished off the fish and set the spit and remains aside. It felt like an accomplishment. “The ship is different than what I usually fly. Seems almost like it’s…”

Alive.

Stowe looked toward the craft. “Don’t like the sound of it much, but that might be me being an old curmudgeon of a mountain man.

” He glanced back at Kase with a small smile on his face.

“You’re a pretty decent pilot, though. If I were to fly with anyone else, don’t think I’d make it very far without leaping off fast as I was able. ”

Kase couldn’t help the snort that came from him. “Thanks.”

Too bad his own father didn’t share that sentiment. Hallie was blasted lucky.

Kase rubbed his tongue over his teeth, looking for any stray fish meat stuck there. “I’m more worried about why flying is wiping me out so badly. I don’t think it’s just adrenaline wearing off or anything. And it flies much smoother and faster than our hovers.”

Stowe fished out his caffeine concoction and mixed up a shot for Kase.

“Narden legend says the Trips gave themselves over to the black gods of their home planet. Dunno if I believe in the occult or gods, but nothing good ever comes out Cerulene. Even living on the border of all three realms, I’ve never met a Rubikan or Jaydian trader who wants to do business with them, but the Cerls pay well for any sort of Zuprium. ”

Kase knocked back the shot and grimaced as the lukewarm mixture went down his throat.

Stowe stood. “They tell some awful tales of what happens when any Cerl upsets King Filip.” He spat to the side and stood.

“And then there’s those rogue Trip bands looking to stir up trouble in the mountains.

That’s what we thought the attack was last winter—but it was that Correa.

He and his soldiers massacred the villagers.

Didn’t use no bombs or the like, just went in and used them pistols and swords.

Took us months of cleaning up. Only could do it at night.

” He went silent, looking over toward the rising sun’s pink rays peeking over the horizon.

They painted the bottom of the cotton-like clouds like blood.

Kase didn’t say anything. The destruction of Nar and the thought of what awaited them in Kyvena was enough to still his tongue.

Stowe rubbed his head again and looked back at Kase, his eyes a little misty. “Zelda and I were visiting…well, visiting the Burning site when it happened. We do that from time to time, because it’s…”

Kase’s chest squeezed. He understood what he was trying to say. Kase would sometimes rub the frame of Ana’s portrait in the corridor of Shackley Manor.

“If you hadn’t been, Hallie would’ve lost you both,” Kase said.

Stowe gave a wry chuckle. “She’s not been the same since Jack. None of us have.”

Kase’s fingers caught in the even messier strands of his curls as he ran a hand through.

He really needed to clean up soon. “I’ve lost a brother and a sister in the last few years—my brother only a few months back.

” He was glad his voice didn’t choke. He shoved his hands into his pockets, but he didn’t break eye contact with Stowe.

He didn’t want to betray Hallie’s trust. “It took Hallie knocking some sense into me, but before I met her, I was a mess.”

Stowe didn’t say anything, and Kase reached out and hesitantly put his hand on Stowe’s shoulder as a sign of comfort. “We all deal with grief in different ways, but Hallie taught me that running away isn’t the answer. I think she’d want you to know that.”

Stowe looked thoughtful for a moment—then, without warning, he turned to Kase and pulled him into a hug.

At first, Kase stiffened. He barely knew this man, and he was a bear compared to Kase’s thinner frame. But after a second, Kase relaxed and hugged him back, blinking mist out of his eyes. It was odd to be hugged by a father. He wasn’t certain Harlan even knew the word.

After another moment, Stowe pulled back, wiping his own eyes. “You’ll take good care of her, son.”

Kase’s smile was the first genuine one he’d had since leaving Hallie behind. He held out his hand for the other man to shake. “Only if she’ll let me.”

Stowe took his offered hand and chuckled. “Gets that from her mama.”

Hallie

NIELS HAD KISSED HER.

Cold. Hallie’s entire body felt cold. The power was still there, but it had turned to the darkest of ice. She couldn’t tug it loose; she couldn’t push it to her fingers.

She couldn’t ask what was happening to it, because the only people who might know were a mile or two away, near the place Ebba died. Returning there would only weaken her hold on reality even further. Besides, going back to finding Fely and Filip would have required passing Niels again.

At least his leg was better off.

She didn’t know how she’d done it. She’d clutched her power tether as hard as she possibly could and pushed the rest into Niels.

It hadn’t been easy. She’d nearly lost hold twice. And she’d drained herself even further.

She should be dead.

But somehow she wasn’t.

And something in the back of her mind told her it was only because she’d been here in the palace, surrounded by Zuprium, that she’d been able to heal him.

If she truly had healed him. It was possible this one would fail just as the first had. Was he going to be forced to relive his pain every few hours until Hallie could no longer fix him? Would Saldr know what to do if they ever got back to Kyvena?

She’d much rather think of a plan to help him than…than that kiss.

Her boots tapped along the corridor in time with her heart. It drowned out the silence and the memories of the last time she walked across these floors, of Kase and Zeke. Of Saldr. Of the multitude of Yalvs whose footsteps no longer echoed with hers.

She didn’t know how far she’d walked or even where she was going, but somehow she’d ended up in front of the quarters she, Kase, and Zeke had shared. It was like her subconscious mind knew she needed to see something familiar.

She entered the room. Her eyes adjusted to the dark enough even though the early beams of moonlight shining through the window weren’t terribly bright.

A part of her registered that the silence she’d ignored on the way here should have been eerie, that most of the people who roamed these corridors were dead.

Only a small remnant had made it to Kyvena.

The Lord Elder was gone, his power given to Hallie in a dank dungeon room that lay beneath rubble.

She fell onto the sofa where she and Kase had spent one of their nights in the palace reading books. Those were scattered across the shelves, a few upon the floor.