Page 70 of Swords of Soul and Shadow (Gate Chronicles #3)
TUMBLING DOWN
Hallie
AFTER THREE DAYS OF SITTING in her parents’ tent, Hallie was about ready to lose her mind.
For one, she’d only received three messages in those three days.
One was from Kase saying that his father approved him to train the amateur pilots in preparation for the electricity being reinstated—once his house arrest ended.
The second was from Saldr, saying that he and Fely would be training her starting the next morning.
He’d needed to acquire more Zuprium dust first, as his own supply had been depleted.
The third was from the esteemed Stradat Lord Kapitan.
Hallie was only vaguely impressed that he’d taken the time to seal it with wax engraved with his coat of arms, as if nothing was more important than sending missives to people properly in a time such as this.
The contents of the note were brief and to the point.
Hallie was to train with Saldr and use her power to restore the electricity.
It was more of an official order than a personalized note.
It still seemed over the top to use the wax seal. It annoyed Hallie most because, unless he had the forethought to bring it with him to the Catacombs—which was unlikely, based on what she’d gleaned from her mother—then the man must have sent for them.
It really bothered her more than it should.
Hallie wasn’t even sure she could restore the electricity.
Even if she could, in the grand scheme of things, it was at the bottom of her list. She needed to find the second Gate, because finding it might be the way to get rid of this power to begin with.
She just didn’t know how she was to combine the Essence power with the others.
Both Fely and Saldr had been unwilling to tell her much.
But she knew they still needed the other three Essences to show up in Kyvena.
According to reports, Ben was still flying around on his dragon, more or less guarding the city.
It hadn’t attacked since the city fell, only watched.
Hallie had yet to see it for herself and would have chalked it up to hearsay if Kase had not confirmed it in his note, as well.
Legends tended to grow the more fearful people were, but this one was plenty big on its own.
On top of all that, her power still hadn’t resurfaced, and she was terrified that when it did, she’d bring the Catacombs down upon all their heads.
In the three days since she’d been back, she hadn’t had the time or privacy to explore Navara’s journals and enter her memories.
Her mother hadn’t left her alone, dragging her not only to the rations station to help prep for meals, which Hallie was rubbish at, but also to the hospital ward daily to help as needed. Niels still hadn’t woken.
By the time Hallie returned to her parents’ tent at night after consuming her meager rations, she was too exhausted to try much of anything.
And she couldn’t very well use the journal while her parents slept right next to her.
Waking up to find their daughter in a trance or bleeding onto a journal would only terrify them and end with her herded off to get seen by a medic—after her father forced her to take some obscure medicinal herb solution he’d concocted first.
As relieved as she’d been to find them alive and relatively unharmed, she couldn’t keep old resentment from creeping in.
It probably made her a terrible daughter—well, scratch that, not probably—but she missed her time without someone looking over her shoulder.
It almost made her long for the days when they’d all but ignored her existence after Jack died.
They might’ve all been wallowing in their grief, but at least it gave Hallie room to breathe.
It was a terrible and odd feeling, like trying to wear an old blouse that clearly no longer fit.
Hallie slipped the latest note, the one from the Stradat Lord Kapitan, away in her satchel with the others.
She had one more day of ripping bedlinens into strips to prepare for use as makeshift bandages before her training with Saldr started.
At least she got to chat with Petra during her shifts while they soaked each new strip in boiling water.
It was nice to catch up, even if their conversations were overshadowed by past events.
They shared tears over Ellis and the friends that hadn’t been found yet.
Thankfully, both Petra’s parents made it through the attack, which Hallie was grateful for.
None of it had changed her friend’s view on Kase.
Hallie prayed he’d be released soon. The last few days with just a single solitary note in place of his company were agony enough without everything else going on. They’d finally reunited, and all she had of him was ink on paper.
Maybe she could visit him today. She’d have to be smart about it.
He’d told her he wasn’t allowed visitors—something about how that had led to his newest confinement.
He hadn’t clarified further than that. She didn’t think she could pay off whoever had been tasked to guard him.
Maybe there was an alternate way to his tent?
Maybe she could just ask and use her feminine wiles.
That thought nearly made her laugh. It would make Kase laugh too.
Stars, she missed him. This was almost worse than when she was on the other side of the world. She was close enough to talk with him, see him, laugh with him, but still too far to reach him.
“Soon as they start releasing people back to the surface, we’re headed home,” Hallie’s mother announced as she tied off her gray braid and pinned it into a bun at the base of her skull.
Hallie paused while tying off her own braid. It’d grown longer in her time away and needed a good trimming. She didn’t tie it back into a bun, though, letting it fall down her back. “Home? To Stoneset?”
Her mother eyed her daughter’s hair, but didn’t comment, though Hallie could tell she wanted to. Dearly. “Yes.”
She didn’t elaborate, only tied on her matron belt before digging through the collection of tiny vials collected in one corner of the tent.
Hallie didn’t know what to think. With her parents on their way back to Stoneset, she would be free again—but out on the open road, they’d be targets for any Cerls roaming the countryside. They were in an active war with Cerulene, and her parents wanted to go right to the border.
Despite wanting some freedom, Hallie didn’t want them to leave.
She chewed the inside of her cheek as her mother pulled out a small vial tinged a light green—a headache cure of her father’s. Zelda held it out to her. “Take this.”
Hallie blanched. She’d always hated the taste of it—like molded mint leaves. Her mother shook it. “If you don’t, you’ll end up with another headache after today, and I’ll need you at your best if you’re to help us prepare to leave.”
“So you’re going to go back, just like that?” Hallie took the vial, but she didn’t uncork it.
“My first purpose for coming to the capital was to get the word out about what happened to Achilles and Stoneset.” Her mother straightened. “My second purpose was to find you and bring you home.”
Hallie froze. Her mother expected her to go with them? Now? “I can’t go back.”
“You can, and you will.”
Was she hearing her correctly? “Mama, there’s no Stoneset to go back to.”
With everything else that had happened, she’d pushed the attack to the back of her mind.
“Of course there is. I’ve seen it. Now drink up.”
Hallie shook her head. “No, you don’t understand. Soldiers found the cavern somehow, and—”
“We’re survivors. We will rebuild.”
Zelda packed her own little bag for her shifts that day. She had brought some extra sugar and spices and liked to add to the rations when she could. As a baker at heart, she couldn’t help it. She’d garnered a little bit of a cult following in the last few days.
“Mama…we can’t just leave.”
“We’re in a war we never asked to be a part of.” Her mother crossed her arms. “I refuse to lose my daughter a second time. We will find a way to survive and help our neighbors rebuild.”
Hallie shook her head. “I don’t even know if there’s anything to go back to. General Correa was looking for me, so I ran, and I left before I could check to see if anyone…”
She couldn’t even finish that sentence.
“Like you left Niels behind before coming here?”
Hallie blinked. Because she wasn’t sure if she heard her correctly. Where had that come from?
“That was three years ago.” Hallie drew herself up to her full height. The other woman did not back down. Hallie mirrored her posture, arms crossed. “And it has nothing to do with what happened to Stoneset a few days ago.”
This was why she needed her own tent. She loved her mother, but just three days under the same roof again was just long enough for them to be back at each other’s throats for no real reason.
Whether or not her mother heard her words, she trudged forward without stopping or caring what grenades she hurled.
“You left him to go to University.” Zelda wagged her finger in the air. “Now he’s lying unconscious in the ward with no hope for tomorrow because he decided to chase you this time.”
Hallie let out a frustrated noise. “What in the blazes does that have to do with me coming back with you to Stoneset? A place that I’ve established may no longer exist, by the way!”
“I have every right to let you know when you’re throwing your life away.” Zelda’s ears were as red as Hallie’s hair. “None of these people here care for you like your father and I do, like Niels does.”
Hallie’s skin prickled and her breath came in short bursts. Her mother no longer had a right to dictate her life. She’d lost that privilege when Hallie had been forced to grow up after her twin brother’s death. “So this is about Kase? Is that it?”
She and the Stradat Lord Kapitan were quite the pair. Blast them both.