Page 46 of Swords of Soul and Shadow (Gate Chronicles #3)

Harlan swallowed, his gaze still as frozen as ice. He remembered. He remembered what he’d said to Kase. The slight feathering of his jaw said so, but Kase couldn’t tell if it was of regret or irritation. Either way, his father didn’t rise to the bait. “The Cerls seek the Spark Essence.”

Cold shock coursed through Kase’s body at the words. “ How do you know that? ”

He’d come all this way to give Harlan that information. He’d left Hallie—and his father had already known. He clenched his fists against his sides, his arms still folded.

“I was unsuccessful in keeping the Essence wielder from wreaking havoc on our world. For once, I and the Cerls are aligned on that front.” It was his turn to rub a hand down his face.

More lines had grown around his eyes and crossed his forehead in Kase’s brief time away.

Vaguely, Kase wondered if he’d been the cause. He hoped so.

Harlan continued, “I’ve even been meeting with Cerl defectors, and all of it was for naught.”

What?

“How long?” Kase uncrossed his arms.

“Doesn’t matter. I had a good contact in Nar particularly.

Dead now.” Harlan grabbed a rock he’d been using as a paperweight on the makeshift desk.

He gripped it in his hands. Kase knew he wanted to throw it, but his father reined in his temper and set the rock back down, his hands shaking slightly.

The longer Kase stood there, the more the words sank in.

He lowered himself into the chair and put his face in his hands.

His father had been missing on multiple occasions during the months after Kase had returned from Tasava.

Vicious rumors of an affair had circulated quickly in a society so obsessed with decorum.

Kase himself had believed them. Harlan had never done much to dispute it.

Cerl defectors. The affair rumors had been a great cover, Kase loathed to admit. Still, it didn’t excuse Harlan’s other sins.

Pressing the heels of his palms against his eyes, Kase muttered, “Correa needs all the Essence powers in order to defeat something called Jagamot. Not sure what that is.”

“ All of them? Where did you get that information?”

“ I told you , I nearly died at their hands.” Kase sat back, blinked away the wavy lines in his eyes, and twisted Ana’s ring around his finger. “The Cerls kidnapped Hallie, and I…I turned myself in to save her.”

Harlan’s eyebrows rose a little at the mention of Hallie. They fell by the end of Kase’s sentence. “Ridiculous. You could’ve been—if I had—”

Kase leaned forward, elbows on his knees.

“I did what I had to do.” He steeled himself to deliver the next bit of news.

“They’re systematically working their way through the countryside.

” After seeing Nar, he guessed that the blue markers he’d memorized on the map in Correa’s office must’ve coordinated with the places they’d taken over or had planned to do so—maybe even with One World’s help.

“Nar?”

“Overrun.”

Harlan turned his back to Kase, a hand rubbing down his face. For once, his frustration wasn’t aimed at his youngest son, not entirely. His father spoke to the back of the tent. “Have they collected all the Essence powers, sans Loffler?”

Kase shook his head to clear it. Surely, he’d heard wrong. Loffler was half-dead and useless. “What does that old coot have to do with this?”

Harlan let out a disbelieving chuckle. “Everything, apparently.” He folded his arms across his chest. His jacket was missing all his accolades.

The only thing decorating it was the Jaydian emblem on the breast. Harlan smoothed his mustache, taming the few wayward strands.

“So Correa has found them all, except him?”

And Hallie. Kase ground his teeth. “No.”

“No?”

Kase hid his face in his hands once more. What would his father do if he knew about Hallie? Send someone to fetch her? Imprison her? Force her to use that power no matter what it might do to her?

For a moment, the tent disappeared, overcome by fire licking stone as the fort crumbled around him.

“Answer me.” His father’s voice was hard, but it lacked its usual bite.

Kase ground the heels of his palms into his eyes once more. What to say…what to say…

“Kase Michael Shackley, if you withhold information that could win us this war, I will not hesitate to throw you in a cell.”

That would be difficult, since the only cells Harlan could throw him in were now a pile of rubble on top of Kyvena’s tallest hill. His writhing emotions kept the retort twisted up inside.

Besides, to his great displeasure, his father was right.

If he didn’t tell him all he knew, they might as well surrender; they wouldn’t stand a chance against the Cerl forces, much less the end of the world.

He apologized to Hallie silently as he muttered, “Hallie Walker took the Essence power from the Lord Elder.”

Kase still didn’t look up, but Harlan’s sharp intake of breath told him everything he needed to know.

“She’s not here,” he said quickly.

“Then where is she?”

Kase dropped his hands and met his father’s gaze. “Myrrai.”

“Why?”

“She believes there’s something there that’ll help us.” Kase took a shallow breath. He hoped his father didn’t notice just how shaky it was—or how uncertain he was about everything beyond what he’d already said.

He couldn’t be sure exactly what they were facing. Correa could be some unhinged fanatic, his rambling about Jagamot nothing but religious drivel. But Hallie had done something at Achilles. Massive forts didn’t just come apart at the seams.

Harlan turned away from him, looking toward the back of his tent once more. Kase was silent. He wasn’t sure what else he could say to help. He’d delivered the message—that was as far as he’d planned.

The tent flap opened; the subtle breeze it delivered felt cold on Kase’s neck.

One of the guards said, “I apologize for the interruption, Stradat Lord Kapitan. But Lord Stephenson needs to speak with you.”

“Not now.”

“He says it’s urgent.”

Harlan let out a frustrated sigh. “Tell him I will see him in five minutes.”

The tent flap closed, and Kase stood. “I’ll just go…go find somewhere to sleep for the night.”

“You’re under house arrest.”

“Father—”

Harlan let out a growl of frustration, voice lowering dangerously. “The city wants you to hang. And with the continued flyovers, everyone is already on edge. Your presence here is a bomb waiting to detonate.”

“But our hovers…what’s keeping us from fighting back?”

Kase already suspected the answer, and he wasn’t sure if he wanted it confirmed. The airfields likely hadn’t survived the bombing he’d witnessed. But what about before that? What had happened during the attack?

Harlan cleared his throat. “The Jaydian hovers were not operational during the initial assault, courtesy of Abram Loffler. That is why knowing Essence wielders were still at large ahead of time would have been helpful.”

Kase’s face grew hot once more. “We were only trying to protect…I…”

He couldn’t find his words. What if he implied something about Hallie? What if Kase came clean, and his father retaliated against her if she returned?

If.

“What’s done is done. We must find a way to fight back without the Crews.”

“I stole a Cerl hover in Nar,” Kase said.

Harlan froze, but only for a moment. A sardonic sneer blossomed on his face. “Of course you did.”

“I can fly it. I can take care of the flyovers.”

Harlan threw his hands in the air. “You can’t do anything against an entire fleet. Besides, you aren’t going anywhere. Not now.”

“But—”

“You’ve done enough.”

Kase threw his shoulders back, standing tall, ready to fight. “I’m the best pilot you have. You can’t afford to keep me grounded.”

Harlan poked him in the chest. “You’re the only pilot we have, so no, I’m not risking your life just because you have an overinflated ego.”

All the air left Kase’s lungs. “What do you mean, only ?”

Harlan stared into his soul. The hazel color shifted depending on the day, the lighting, and his father’s mood.

Today, dark brown streaks stood out against the green.

Danger. “It’s my understanding the Hover Colonel called in all pilots to fight the Cerls that night.

Except the electricity died. The hovers and their pilots on the airfield strip were sitting ducks.

The others fell out of the sky. Those who survived were killed by the Cerls or One World. ”

“Your understanding ? Wouldn’t you know, being the Lord Kapitan?”

The muscle in his father’s jaw jumped again. “I took the fall when the secret about the Kyvena fire got out. While you were off turning yourself over to the Cerl commander.”

Kase blinked. “I don’t understand.”

The father Kase had known would’ve never done that. It was almost…noble.

“You ran, and the city wanted blood.” Harlan’s anger drained away, leaving him looking so tired in that moment that Kase could scarcely believe his father and the man in front of him were one and the same.

Harlan leaned heavily on the scuffed table.

“If the Cerls hadn’t attacked, I wouldn’t be here now. ”

Kase said nothing. He wasn’t sure what that meant, exactly.

Something in the back of his mind told him he should be thanking his father, but he couldn’t.

The man in front of him didn’t deserve that kindness.

Giving Kase a tea bag full of herbs and taking the fall, whatever that meant, wasn’t enough to erase past hurts or garner his respect.

Harlan clasped his hands behind his back.

“However, when we surveyed a few of the refugees gathered here, we discovered that both Millicent Sarson and Heddie Koppen perished.” His voice was hard and flinty, like he didn’t quite believe the words he’d just said.

“The remaining City Council members and I are rationing food supplies and keeping the peace between the refugees while we figure out a way to mount a resistance against the Cerls, but if the cave-ins keep happening, we’re going to have to send people back to the surface soon.

It’s hardly safer down here than up there. ”

Kase couldn’t help the quiver in his voice. “And there’s no way we can fight back? Are we certain all the pilots are dead?”

“Without the Hover Colonel, I’ve been forced to rely on word of mouth and three traumatized greenies not yet called up, but the gaping holes in the airfields and wreckage of other hovers on the city outskirts do not leave much hope.”

Kase fell back into the small chair. Dead. Every last person. “And the ones on missions elsewhere?”

“We can’t be sure, but it seems you saw enough in Nar to guess.”

Kase worked his jaw, trying to tamper his grief. All the names and faces of those he knew flashed in his mind, but he couldn’t pause to think on any of them. Otherwise he might fall apart. “Greenies can fly well enough.”

Harlan sighed. “We can’t force them to fly. It’s practically suicide. One is Laurence Hixon, if that tells you anything.”

Kase winced. Hixon was the greenie that he’d fought in the duel all those months ago. So three greenies…but all untried washouts.

“Then you have no choice but to use me. The Cerl hover isn’t anything like I’ve flown before.” Kase pushed past his shock about the Crews. “It’s almost intuitive. The Cerls won’t realize I’m the one flying until it’s too late.”

“Absolutely not.”

Kase stood again. He gestured wildly with his hands. “It’s what I was trained to do, and if it helps turn the tide even a little, it’s worth it. I could do short flyovers, take a few out at a time, and—”

“No.”

“But—”

Harlan grabbed his shoulders, gripping them so hard Kase winced. “I will not lose another son.”

Jove. He was ashamed he’d nearly forgotten. How cruel that Kase was the son Harlan hated most, yet he might be the only one left to continue his legacy.

Kase swallowed. “Why are the caves collapsing?”

“We can’t be sure, but we assume it’s because too many people are in the tunnels, and the infrastructure cannot withstand the influx. That’s why we’re looking to move people out as soon as we can.” He released Kase.

Kase swallowed and searched for the tea bag, discarded at his feet. “Where’s Mother? How’s she taking it?”

He looked around, half expecting her to appear and give him the lecture of his life for scaring her.

Harlan was silent. He looked toward the corner of the tent, then back at Kase.

He’d never seen Harlan’s face wear this kind of tension before.

His eyes gleamed, but not with anger or hatred.

If Kase didn’t know better, he might have said his father was…

emotional. Yet, his voice shook only on the final word.

“We haven’t been able to locate her. I believe she may have perished during the attack. ”

Numb. Kase was numb.

Harlan stepped past him toward the entrance. “I’ll arrange for your own tent and a few guards to keep you safe from the masses. By order of the High Council and the Stradat Lord Kapitan, your house arrest begins now.”