Authors: Charlotte Boyett-Compo
“This,” Lord Dunham said, taking the bottom of the page and folding it over and to the back of the stand, “is the way our country used to look.”
Gasps of surprise rushed through the Reapers and women. The map upon which they were looking was nearly twice the size as the one they’d just seen.
“What you see here is before the Burning War,” the Shadowlord said. “Before the tidal waves on the eastern coast, the earthquakes on the western coast and the buckling of our land caused by the bombs set off during the hostilities.” He tapped a spot on the map. “This is where the Citadel once was located. Take note of it.” He moved the pointer to the center of the map. “These states were once called Nebraska and Colorado.” He waited for everyone to study the place he’d indicated and then reached behind the stand to pull the first sheet over back in place. A goodly portion of the land that had existed before the War was gone with water having spread nearly to the very center of the place where the Shadowlord had indicated the state called Nebraska. Half of each of the lands that been the two states he’d named were now under water.
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Charlotte Boyett-Compo
“When the tidal wave came, we lost eleven entire states and more than half of three others. What was once called the Northeast tier of states no longer exists,” Lord Dunham said. “The small portions of what was once Nebraska and Colorado are now in the Nemcone Territory. Beyond that is Calizonia. We lost half of our land to the fierceness of nature and the greed of man.”
“Not only did we lose millions of people to the War,” Lord Naois injected, “we lost many more than that to disease, famine and a host of other troubles too many to go into here. Let it suffice to say, the country in which we now sit was devastated by the War but not as severely as the lands across the oceans.”
“When She brought us here,” Lord Dunham said, “Morrigunia placed us where She believed we would be of the most help. Nearly overnight She used her majestic powers to stop the spread of disease and eradicated much of it. Some destruction She obliterated, but most of it was left to remind us of what a terrible thing war is.”
“What She did was have those who had survived start again, giving them memories She had of the way She wanted this land to be,” Lord Naois said. “It was a past life, a past season to which She returned Her humankind. It was to a time when there was honor and growth, when man had scruples and morals and hope. It was She who caused the railways to appear on the scarred land, putting the routes where She wanted them to be.”
“Some knowledge, some inventions She destroyed forever,” Lord Dunham said.
“Some discoveries She felt were not of benefit She erased, every mention of those disappearing from the archives we had found beneath the last floor of the Citadel. In all things, it would be Her design that was undertaken and with Her plan, humankind would never again tread the path to war.”
“And that has worked well for us until now,” Lord Naois said.
“What changed?” Lea dared to ask.
“Raphian and His evil, wench,” Lord Dunham replied. “The Destroyer sent His minions here to install the
balgairs
, the rogues, to wipe out mankind and it became necessary for Morrigunia to provide Reapers to stop the rise of that evil.” He looked at Cynyr. “We had all but wiped out the
balgairs
when the Ceannus returned and this time with not only
balgairs
but with ghorets.”
“And still we prevailed,” Lord Naois said. “As good is wont to do.”
“But we did not know about what was brewing in Calizonia,” Lord Dunham said.
“Now we must wipe out the Ceannus once and for all,” Lord Naois said. “If we don’t, they will destroy us.”
Aingeal was watching Lord Kheelan. The High Lord was sitting in his chair, his head lowered, fingers steepled, as his fellow Shadowlords took the floor. His eyes were closed, his face sallow. He looked as though he might have a hellish headache. She nudged her husband and indicated the Shadowlord by a jut of her chin. “He looks none too well,” she whispered.
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Prime Reaper
“He has headaches too,” Cynyr confirmed. “Ones, I’m told, that are much worse than those we Reapers suffer. Shadowlords take tenerse for that reason alone.”
“To control the headaches?”
“Aye.”
“Can he shape-shift?” she asked.
Cynyr shook his head. “No, but he has other deadly powers more wicked than being able to turn men into statues as he did me and Jaborn this afternoon.” He lowered his voice. “Stop talking about him, wench. He hears everything that is said and will not appreciate being discussed.”
Aingeal saw the High Lord’s lips twitch and knew he was smiling. When he opened his eyes and cut them across to her, she saw him wink. Her face burned and she looked away from him quickly.
Arawn could hear the exchange between Aingeal and her mate as clearly as though they were speaking to him though they were at opposite ends of the seating from him. His connection to Cynyr made this possible and he tried to block out the conversation. Having given his fellow Reaper the Queen from his own body to save Cynyr’s life, the tie between them would always be strong and unbreakable. He could feel both Cynyr’s annoyance with his mate and his fear the Shadowlord would retaliate in some way for them impinging on his privacy.
“
I would not do that
,” Lord Kheelan told Arawn, “
but it’s just as well he believe it could
happen. It’ll keep both of them on their toes
.”
Knowing those words had come to him alone, Arawn nodded, relaxing for he’d feared that whatever was directed at one, the other would be privy to, and that had made him uneasy.
Danielle glanced at her husband and wondered if he was in communication with someone within the room. She knew that was possible and it intrigued her. Arawn had mentioned as they dressed for supper that he would need to take some of her blood so he could stay in contact with her while he was gone and she was on edge, wondering if it would hurt. She put a hand to her belly and winced.
“Too much shrimp, wench?” Arawn asked, leaning over to whisper in her ear.
“I fear so,
mo shearc
,” she said, rubbing her right side.
“They’re probably squirming around in there,” he teased, for his wife had practically made a pig of herself scarfing down the boiled delicacies she had not known existed until this evening.
“Oh but that sauce was so tangy and so sweet and so hot it made my nose run!” she countered dreamily.
“Aye, and now it’s given you a bellyache,” he said. “In moderation, my love. Everything in moderation.”
“I know,” she said with a sigh.
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Charlotte Boyett-Compo
“From Lord Kasid’s eyewitness account and the aerial recon of our drone, this is what we have learned of the Ceannus camp,” Lord Dunham said, and flipping both maps over to show a third and it was a sobering sight.
It was a black-and-white photograph similar to those in newspapers that the Reapers and their ladies were viewing but on a much larger scale. The details were sharp and clear, so precise it almost seemed as though they were looking out a window at the scene. There were rugged mountains in the background, a bright wash of what must be the ocean butted right up to a seawall built to contain the splashing waves. Round hut after round hut rimmed the perimeter in concentric waves with a large, square building sitting in the center of five rows or huts.
“The large building is where the children are being kept and from what we can discern, is also the headquarters. This—” Lord Dunham pointed to an X-shaped craft sitting off to one side of the encampment “—is no doubt the ship that brought them here. It is ten times larger than the craft Morrigunia destroyed in the mountains over Haines City.”
“And it is no doubt their power source,” Lord Naois said. He too took up a pointer and slapped it against a tall towerlike construction. “At night, the entire scope of the camp is lit as brightly as if it were day.”
“So much for a stealthy night attack,” Owen Tohre commented.
“Look here,” Lord Dunham said, and ran his pointer all along the eastern side of the encampment where a thin line curved in an arc from seawall to seawall like a giant smile. “These are buried alarm wires. If anything crosses this line, it is automatically incinerated by land mine.”
“Oh for joy,” Bevyn grumbled. “Then how the hell do we get in?”
“Good question, Lord Bevyn,” Lord Naois said. “We can’t air drop you because there is a Net like the one we are employing over the Citadel. You would vaporize the instant you came into contact with it.”
“We could channel underneath it,” Jaborn spoke up, and though every Reaper there turned an annoyed look on him, they seemed to grudgingly accept his suggestion.
“That would take some digging since we’re talking about very loose sand out there,” Arawn reminded them.
“Aye, but there is one way in they sure as hell won’t be considering and I dare they’ve bothered to secure it,” Glyn Kullen said.
“Where’s that?” Lord Dunham asked.
Glyn exchanged a smile with Phelan but it was Iden who answered. “The water,”
he said. “We can swim along the seawall and climb up. Are there alarms along the seawall?”
“Yes and no,” Lord Dunham said with a grin. “As you say, they didn’t consider an attack might come from the water. When the Net was put into place, it touched the sand just beyond the seawall, encompassing the facility completely. It is static, stationary, 38
Prime Reaper
with set dimensions that are not flexible. As time has passed and the tides have eroded the coastline, a gap has formed between where the Net ends and the coastline begins. It’s a gap large enough for a man to wriggle under without detection so aye, taking the encampment from the sea is the only way we can do this.”
Bevyn looked uncomfortable with that suggestion. “I can’t swim,” he said.
“No Reaper can,” Jaborn snapped.
“Not true,” Glyn told him. “The three of us swam the Misery River and that’s a wide plain of water.”
“Aye, but the water in the Misery isn’t as rough as the waves of the ocean,” Lord Naois reminded him.
“If you’re a strong swimmer—and we three are—that’s not a problem,” Phelan said. He looked at Arawn and then Cynyr. “You two were swimmers, weren’t you?”
“Aye,” both drawled. “But it’s been a long time.”
“It’s like riding a horse,” Glyn said. “You never forget.”
“But I can’t swim,” Bevyn complained.
“Then you’ll stay here,” Lord Kheelan spoke up. He raised his head and looked at Bevyn. “We were going to keep one of you here anyway. We just hadn’t decided who as yet.”
“Why?” Bevyn challenged. “I’m 2-I-C and—”
“Never again will we send the entire team to any fight,” Lord Kheelan said. “We almost lost one of you to the ghorets. We could have lost you all. We won’t take that chance again.”
“But I am—” Bevyn began.
“You will stay here,” the High Lord stated. “There will be no argument.”
Arawn caught Bevyn’s eye and shook his head. He understood the necessity of keeping one of the Reapers out of harm’s way just as he’d understood the need for them to donate hellions to the repository.
“Lady Aingeal’s suggestion to have a healer accompany you men was a good one and we have assigned Healer Sorrel to you. He will be leaving with you in the morning and will take along a goodly supply of tenerse as well as a spare fledgling for each of you. We are having a special medical train car outfitted as we speak,” Lord Dunham reported. “We will base it in Haines City as Lady Aingeal advised.”
“Since the rail line ends in Towertown in the Nemcone Territory, you will take the train from here to there. From Towertown, you will need to take your horses into Calizonia,” Lord Naois said.
Arawn stood. “May we see the map of the country as it is now?”
Lord Dunham lowered the map into place and looked to the Prime Reaper for explanation.
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Charlotte Boyett-Compo
Moving from his chair and going to the map, Arawn studied it for a moment or two then reached out to draw a line from the Exasla Territory to the ocean. “Wouldn’t it be best for us to ride to the coast then take a ship closer to the place where we plan to infiltrate the Ceannus camp?” he asked. “Don’t you imagine their guards will be watching for us to come across the desert for an invasion and be prepared?”
“There are many hundreds of miles between Nemcone and the encampment, Lord Arawn,” Lord Naois stated. “How could they know exactly from where you’d start?”
“True, but I would think those miles would be watched closely. They will know we would come by rail and they may have spies already in Towertown. But if we got off the train a few stops before in Lewisville in the Exasla Territory and traveled by horse along the border with Diabolusia, is it possible to get a sailing ship to take us from the western coast of Diabolusia, close to the Ceannus encampment?”
Lord Kheelan came to stand beside Arawn and he too studied the map. “It would have to be at night so the ship wouldn’t be seen easily but that would work well enough, I believe.” He pointed to a jagged edge of land at the base of Diabolusia.
“Before the earthquakes, this was a solid land mass. Now, getting a sailing ship through from the Flagala Territory would be easy enough to do.”
“I haven’t swum since I was a boy,” Jaborn said. “I’m not sure I could make it through such rough surf.”
“We’ll be there to help you,” Arawn said. “Remember, we’ll have the tides at our back. We could practically body float to shore.”
“And riptides lurking under the waves to draw us out to sea and drown us,” Jaborn said through clenched teeth.
“The hellion isn’t going to allow you to drown,” Glyn said. “When I was swimming, I could feel it making my arms and legs stronger, giving more buoyancy to my body. I believe Bevyn could jump in and the revenant worm would instruct him instantly on how to swim.”
“I could hear the thing telling me to kick,” Iden said. “It wasn’t happy we were in the water but neither did it punish us for having carried out the experiment.”