Soulbound (26 page)

He turned around and as I changed, a question burned its way out of me. “What’s the real reason you’re taking me there?”

He turned his head to the side just as I was tying the sash of my top into a knot. “Because you’re learning how to fight, but you have no idea
why
we fight. You lack reason. You lack purpose. Every time you bring that blade down, you have to mean it, and you don’t yet.”

The image of Avery’s blood on my father’s shirt flashed in my mind briefly, and I clenched my jaw defiantly, shoving my Healer uniform into the bag before slipping it over my shoulders. “I have my own reasons. I don’t need yours.”

Darius gauged me for a moment, and for a second, I was sure he was going to say something other than what he did. “Yes, you do.”

As quietly as possible, we moved through the woods and down the mountainside. Neither of us spoke, and I tried like hell to control my breathing so we wouldn’t attract any unwanted visitors to our day hike. After two hours of walking, Darius glanced at me, but I shook my head, unwilling to admit that I was exhausted already and needed a break. An hour more and I gave his sleeve a breathless tug. He nodded, turning his head, checking carefully that it was a relatively safe area to stop briefly. When he gave another nod, I let out an exhausted sigh and sat on a fallen log, opening my rucksack in search of
food. There were three brown sacks inside: one containing some type of dried, seasoned meat; one containing different types of dried fruit; and one containing a small baguette and some cheese. I bit into the cheese, chasing it with a bit of bread, and my stomach gurgled its gratitude. I chewed on a few more bits of the bread before giving the dried meat a try. It was somewhat spicy, but oddly tender for jerky. Darius watched the area around us as I ate, always on alert. We didn’t speak—I knew better than to talk without him giving me the go-ahead out here. We were far away from the school now, even farther than Kessler, and well on our way to the Outer Rim. This was dangerous territory, and completely unfamiliar to me. Once I’d finished my snack, I tucked the rest of the food away, and slipped my rucksack back on, its weight feeling heavier than it had when Darius had first handed it to me. There was a long road ahead of us, and I knew that that pack was going to get heavier with every step. But I didn’t complain—mostly because I knew that complaining would do nothing but irritate Darius.

At his signal, we continued silently south for several hours, until the sun was setting just over the trees. Though I could still spy it, the forest had already become incredibly dark—something that seemed to put Darius’s nerves even more on edge than they had been. We moved swiftly through the growing night, and soon our downward trek became an upward climb. We were
almost there—I could feel it in my bones. But just as I was catching my second (or, to be honest, my fifth) wind, Darius stopped in his tracks and listened. My muscles tensed, but when he removed his rucksack and dropped it on the ground, I relaxed a little. It was time to camp. “Tomorrow morning, I’ll show you Kingsland.”

“Won’t Maddox or Trayton be suspicious that I’m gone?”

“Maddox already knows. I told her this morning when I stopped by to see her and give her some salve for her bite.”

Silently, I wondered if he’d noticed that I’d used some of his medicinal mixture on Maddox already. I was betting that he had. Darius wasn’t the kind of person who didn’t notice the tiny details.

“And Trayton…” He nodded then. Not to anything I had said, but perhaps something in his thoughts. “He’ll believe me.”

I didn’t question how he knew that, just trusted the sincerity on his face. Something told me that he and Trayton had been through a lot together. They trusted each another.

I strained my memory, but couldn’t recall ever having heard of the village he’d mentioned before. “Kingsland? Should I have heard of it?”

“I would hope so.” His jaw clenched momentarily, and his eyes gave way to a haunted, sad expression—a
hole in his armor that I had not been prepared to see. “It lies just north of Wood’s Cross.”

My heart froze its rhythm, and then sank. Of all the places that Darius would take me, it would have to be the place that haunted my parents still, the place that had robbed from them their dearest loves until they became a couple. Rolling out my sleeping blankets, I lay quietly as Darius circled the area, peering through the darkness to the treetops. I didn’t know if he planned on sleeping, and soon, I surprised myself that I could.

When I awoke the following morning, my back was stiff, and my hair was moist with fallen dew. Darius sat atop a large nearby boulder, ever alert. Without even glancing in my direction, he said, “Eat something. We only have about an hour before we have to head back to Shadow Academy. It’s all the time we can afford before suspicions arise that we might not actually be on an herb-gathering expedition.”

Without speaking, I rolled up my sleeping blankets and placed them inside my rucksack. I chewed a bit of jerky, but I wasn’t sure my queasy stomach could handle much more than that. We were going to Wood’s Cross today—a place I’d hoped I’d never see, a place that was now the eternal resting ground for several thousand Barrons and Healers. Many believed it to be a cursed area. Even my parents, who believed there was a rational explanation for just about everything, didn’t like to talk
about Wood’s Cross, or even to speculate on some of the strange things that had happened there. No one—not even the academy scholars, as far as I had heard—could even give a logical reason why the two largest, most damaging battles in the war against Darrek had taken place in exactly the same place, just twenty years apart. It was a haunted place, and no one in their right mind dared to visit it of their own accord.

So of course we were going there.

Darius hadn’t said that. He’d said that we were going to Kingsland. But what he’d meant was that we were going through Kingsland, to Wood’s Cross. He wanted me to have a reason to fight, and no matter what I might have said to refuse, he was convinced that Wood’s Cross would give me that reason. He might have been right, but if he was, I didn’t want to find out. The truth was, it scared me. No place that had shaken under so much war or soaked up so much blood could be safe. Energies remained—especially negative energies—and all that I had heard about Wood’s Cross told me that it was a nasty, frightening place to be.

“Darius…why do you think that the two biggest battles of this war have taken place in exactly the same spot?” I was hesitant to ask him, but curious about what his response might be. He might tell me to fak off or something, but I had to ask. My curiosity couldn’t be contained.

He didn’t answer at first, and just as I was beginning
to think he never would, he said, “Darrek’s looking for something. Something that only appears once every two decades.”

There was no question in his reply, and the certainty in his tone only drew me in further. “You seem so sure.”

“I am sure.”

“How?”

“I’ve seen him.”

I wanted to push for details, but something in the way that his mouth was set told me not to. Quietly, I packed up the remainder of my supplies and slipped my rucksack on before retrieving my katana from beside Darius. He stood listening quietly to the woods before leading me over the next ridge. Nestled at the bottom of the ridge, in an overgrown valley, were the remnants of a small village.

It was difficult to see from the top of the ridge, but as we descended into the valley, through overgrown vines and brush, several buildings came into view. They weren’t exactly buildings anymore, being partially burned and ravaged by war, partially reclaimed by nature. The remaining walls were crumbling, but I could still make out soot from where they’d been burned. By the time we reached what had been the main street through town, I could see how Kingsland had once been laid out. The main street had been comprised of eight large buildings—likely a grocer, tailor, blacksmith, and other important establishments. Fanning out around those in
a southward direction were two hundred or more small buildings. Houses. Which families had called home.

Darius moved down the street and I followed, my feet feeling unsure on the brush-covered ground. I lost my footing once, but managed to steady myself relatively quickly. Darius paused and looked at me over his shoulder. “Watch your step. The ground still holds weapons from both battles here. The greenery grew over it, but it takes metal a long time to be fully reclaimed by Tril. So the ground is a bit uneven in spots.”

“I’ll be careful.” I nodded and when he continued, I followed. All along the main street, we passed ravaged buildings, mounds of refuse that were now small hills, torches that vines had grown up and around, making them look like very small trees. When we reached the other end of town, Darius stopped and turned back with a solemnity that I had never seen before. “Six hundred and thirty-two people called Kingsland home. They were Unskilled, not a part of this war at all. Each died a horrible, terrified death, having no idea why they were dying. And the sick truth is that we could have saved them, could have saved them all. But the Zettai Council voted that it was more important to protect the secrecy of Skilled society than to save six hundred people from a horrible fate.”

My heart seized momentarily. I had witnessed the selfishness of the Zettai Council firsthand in every panicked glance that I had ever seen in my parents’ eyes,
but still I had no idea the lengths to which they would go to hide the fact that Barrons and Healers existed from those they had labeled the Unskilled—as if they were unworthy of any title but one that showed their subservience. The Zettai Council had refused to view the villagers of Kingsland as people, as anything other than a threat, and so they’d sentenced them to death. The fact sank in my stomach like a sour stone.

Darius’s voice softened in respect for the dead—dead which might have been lingering in the place that we were standing. I didn’t know if I truly believed in spirits or the afterlife, but I did know better than to disrespect those who had fallen—especially in the place that they had fallen. So as Darius spoke, I listened to him, keeping my eyes on the remnants of town sprawl for any sign of threat, living or not. “The men, the women, the elderly—they were bad enough. But Kingsland was home to two hundred and twenty-nine children, Kaya. And because children aren’t deemed a threat, they were killed last. They watched as Graplars and Darrek’s soldiers entered the town and murdered their loved ones. They watched as strangers, Barrons and Healers, entered town and fought against those who’d stolen their families away. Then, as King Darrek entered town, the Graplars were turned on the children. So while everyone suffered, it was the children who suffered more than anyone.”

Sorrow wrapped around me like vines, twisting and pulling until they threatened to rip me apart. Children.
How sick was it to destroy adult lives, let alone the lives of children? Lives that had only just begun. Lives filled with so much promise and hope, wiped away with the murderous carelessness of two warring parties. It left a sick sensation in my veins.

“Who’s at fault for their suffering? Most would say Darrek. But the Zettai Council had a hand in their pain, I assure you.” His jaw tightened and he turned to face me, his eyes fierce. “Every time I reach for my sword, I hear a child cry. And every time I kill a Graplar, I think of the people who let those children suffer. Skilled, Unskilled—those are just labels. Children are innocent, and they need our protection. The ghosts of them haunt me every night, and I will not stop until I am purged of this pain, this guilt. They are why I fight.”

Suddenly, I knew why Darius had brought me here. Because he had his reasons for fighting. He had his draw to the battlefield, his cause to defend. And he wanted me to have mine as well.

Closing my eyes briefly, I pictured the streets of Kessler—the Kessler I knew before Avery was murdered. The townsfolk wore friendly, unguarded smiles. The shopkeepers waved as people walked by. The children ran through the streets, laughter trailing behind them in ripples. They were my reason for coming here, for staying here—the villagers of Kessler. And I would be damned before I would let what happened to the villagers of Kingsland happen to the people of Kessler.

Opening my moist eyes, I nodded to Darius. I got it. He’d driven his message home. With a nod in understanding, he set his jaw and said, “Now we’re going to Wood’s Cross.”

I shook my head. There was no reason to go to Wood’s Cross now. I had my cause. I didn’t need to visit that horrible place. “What? Why?”

A shadow seemed to eclipse him as he turned and headed farther out of town, he said, “Because now that you know what you’re fighting for, you need to know what you’re fighting against.”

Dutifully, I followed him out of town and through a wooded glen, though every fiber of my being was pulling at me, pleading with me to stay, to turn back, to get the hell away from that horrible place before I ever even got there. I moved forward, trusting Darius to have good reason for this trip, even though my hands were trembling at the thought of visiting Wood’s Cross.

The glen grew darker as we moved through it, and as we climbed over a small ridge, a strangling sensation wrapped around my throat. I swallowed hard, trying to resist it, but it seemed to be my body’s natural response to the area. I knew that we had entered Wood’s Cross without having been told. It was a sickness hanging in the air, a darkness that permeated everything around it. Looking down the hill, I could make out the crossroads of what had once been two major roads. Greenery had grown over much of the area, and it didn’t look
much different than other areas that we had traveled through to arrive in Kingsland, apart from the large, worn wooden sign at the crossroads that read “Wood’s Cross.” It amazed me that the simple structure still stood after two major battles had ravaged the area, but there it was, haunting the crossroads, standing sentinel over the area that had tasted so much blood. We descended the hill and Darius led me to the exact center of the crossroads. With every step, my throat felt more and more constricted. By the time we reached the sign, my heart was fluttering in an unexplainable panic. Darius had his eyes on me the entire time. “You feel it, don’t you? They say that Healers can sense it more easily—the darkness, the utter evil of this place.”