Crown of Steel (Chaos Awakens) (26 page)

Haley hesitated a moment, but finally she reached back behind her enchanted plague mask and pulled it free. The air against her skin was colder than she had expected it to be as the thin protection fell away from her skin, exposing her flesh to the bitter cold of a northern night. Crow was watching her expectantly, and his intense gaze made the young woman nervous. As light struck her bare skin she felt a moment of anxiety and wished that she'd had hair long enough to cover the ruined side of her face, but that would have made her removal of the mask a pointless gesture. She watched Crow as intently as he was watching her, waiting for him to flinch away or for that all too familiar look of disgust to play across his face. None of that happened.

"It's not so bad." He said after a moment. "You're actually quite beautiful, and younger than I thought you were."

Haley felt her cheeks flush. "No one will mistake me for beautiful, but thank you." Haley slid her mask back into place. "I'm not showing you the rest of my scars." She added the last with a wry grin.

Crow chuckled. "But I showed you mine. Isn't it only fair?"

"Maybe you're as bad Xan thinks you are after all." Haley replied teasingly.

Crow's laughter was light and natural. "No doubt about that." After a moment his face turned serious. "It's not my place to pry, but I thought maybe you'd want to talk about the cursed blades. You've heard Xan's take on the weapons, but have you talked to any of the others?"

Haley immediately went on the defensive. "The blade is evil. There isn't anything else to talk about."

"Evil isn't real. Good and evil are just matters of perspective. Yes, the blades are troll magic, but what is evil about helping you become stronger?" Crow spoke nonchalantly. "The blades have a purpose, and of course you’re expected to aid that purpose, but they also work on your behalf. Mine has saved my life a number of times."

"The trolls hate humanity, Crow. If you work with the blade, you're working against your own people." Haley wasn't happy with this new direction of conversation.

Crow shook his head. "I don't believe that for a second, and if it came down to a point where I did believe I was doing something completely wrong I could stop myself. I am still in control of myself, Haley. Do I seem like a bad person to you?"

The last statement froze Haley's response in her mouth. Was Crow a bad person? He didn't seem evil. He was kind, and he had much in common with her. He hadn't hurt anyone. He'd bonded with his bonesteel blade, yet he seemed to remain himself. Was Xan's weariness of the blades really justified? The assassin was paranoid, but was his paranoia correct? Haley recalled a moment from long before when Xandrith had been terrified that the blade would cause him to hurt her. That fear had been real in his eyes. The blades would hurt people without even thinking twice, and they could force their wielders to do things completely against their will.

"No. I don't think you're a bad person Crow, but the blades can make you do bad things. If they gain control over you, they won't hesitate to hurt those you care about if they get in the way." Haley spoke firmly.

"Maybe, but if you can get your friends to see reason the blade won't have any reason to want to hurt them, and it could even help you save them. Haley, if you really want Xandrith to see you as strong and independent then you'll need every bit of help you can get. And I don't want to see you hurt either. You would be so much stronger with a full bond."

Crow's words made a strange kind of sense. If Haley accepted the blade, she would be stronger. She would be better able to fight for her friends and protect them. A small voice in the back of her mind also noted that she would be more like Kassa, independent and strong. Xan might even notice her as a woman. That voice, Haley wondered, had it been hers or the blade’s? She wasn't certain, but the idea excited her. What was the downside if she could still control herself and her actions as Crow had said? Maybe Xan had only felt as though the blade could take him over. Had it ever really had any control over him beyond threats and suggestion? She had Xan's words, and she didn't believe he would lie, but it might be different for her. She felt confident that she could control the axe.

Crow spoke, breaking her from her thoughts. "We should return to camp. I didn't mean to upset you. You make your own choices. I was just giving you my thoughts on the matter." He seemed almost apologetic.

Haley shook her head. "No, it's alright. It's good to have another opinion to consider. Thank you." They spent the return journey in easy conversation. It seemed as though the tension that had existed between them had evaporated, and a sort of relaxed friendship had settled in its place. To Haley, Crow's acceptance of her scars made him every bit as much a part of the group as Kassa and Xandrith. In fact, Crow was even easier for her to relate to. He was much closer to her age, and she felt like an equal when she spoke to him.  To Crow she was a woman as much as he was a man. They were adults, not children that needed to be looked after. It felt liberating to know that at least one of her companions viewed her as an equal. Crow was a good person, and he understood her. Haley was glad to have him as a friend.

***

"Oh, what's this!?" Crow's voice shattered the moment, bouncing through the small clearing like a fox chasing a rabbit. "We leave you alone for an hour and you get up to all kinds of mischief." He chortled as he and Haley entered the clearing.

Kassa drew back from their near-kiss with a sigh, and Xandrith settled back as well. He felt like a child caught playing naughty games with the neighbor girl in the loft by his parents. Whatever may have been was gone now, and he wondered if it would ever come to pass again. The assassin briefly considered trying to kill Crow again for denying him that moment.

Haley seemed quiet, withdrawn. She wouldn't look at Xandrith or Kassa as she entered the clearing again and took a seat far off from them. Crow sat down heavily beside her.

Crow, for all that he had entirely broken the moment, seemed unaware of the tension that he had created. He went on as if all was right in the world. "I guess I owe you an apology, Xan. In my own fear of the unknown I pushed you too far, and for that I am sorry. If it is your decision that we should use this forbidden magic to get inside the city, then I will not question it any further."

Xan took a deep breath before making his own reply. "I suppose it was wrong of me to try and turn you into a blackened corpse. Everyone is entitled to a mistake now and again." Xandrith forced his wolfish grin. If he'd ever made an apology he really didn't feel, that one had been it.

"Well, that's all settled then!" Crow piped emphatically. "Shall we get going again?"

They settled into a quiet if not entirely relaxed mode of travel for the next few days as they drew closer and closer to Yillan Reach. Xandrith didn't need to question the others to seek out their moods. Everyone in the small group wore their heart on their sleeve, even those with masks covering their faces. Fear and anticipation were mixed with clear signs of worrying paranoia. Even Little Crow, always boisterous and confident, was showing the signs of his discomfort with their surroundings. The world around Yillan Reach was quiet. There were none of the normal signs of animals that one would expect along a traveled roadway, and they met no other foot traffic. Though the trees were all budding and showing the first signs of recovery from the depths of winter, even the insects seemed to be making an effort to pass unnoticed through the environment. The word ‘haunted’ came unbidden to Xandrith's mind and he couldn't force it away.

Then there was the matter of the followers. Xandrith hadn't spoken with the others about it yet, but he was still keenly aware of the mechanna things that were tracking them to the city. They had been moving slowly closer to Xan and his friends, but so far hadn't gotten close enough to be a direct threat. Xandrith was at a loss to figure out exactly what it was they wanted from him and his friends. If they were going to attack, what was it they were waiting for? Unless, of course, Xandrith and his friends were walking directly into some kind of trap so they didn't feel the need to interfere. That was a possibility that sat heavily upon Xan's shoulders.

Again Xan questioned his decision to keep news of their pursuit from his friends. He should tell them. It would be better if they were all prepared to deal with whatever danger was following them. Still, some part of Xandrith was clinging firmly to his secrets and made him unwilling to let them out. The fact that he knew they were being followed and Little Crow did not gave Xandrith a feeling of security for some reason. He couldn't make himself trust the newcomer with any knowledge he didn’t already possess.

He was positive that was one of his least intelligent and well thought out choices, but knowing that Crow was in the dark about their pursuit made Xandrith feel like the more capable killer. When traveling through the darkest parts of the world with his friends such bravado was probably not only foolish, but dangerous. Yet for all that he realized that, Xandrith was loathe to part with his secret. Maybe it wasn't all foolish bravado.

Letting Crow know they were being pursued might give the trouble maker more leverage to try and turn the others against him. The young man was poison to their group. Xan feared he'd already turned Haley against him. Or had Xan done that himself when he'd attacked Crow? That hadn't been a rational response. The assassin was fairly certain that he was losing his mind. Violent outbursts were getting more difficult to control. The worst part was that once he calmed down again, he could clearly see just how foolish he was acting and that only served to agitate him further. That sense of not being in control was keenly bothersome.

With a quiet sigh, Xandrith pushed those worries to the back of his mind and let his eyes fall upon the more pressing concern that was currently rising into the sky before him. The walls of Yillan Reach stretched high into the sky just a few hours of walking away. When last Xandrith had approached the city it had been like walking into a crypt, a massive shell containing naught but death and the memories of terror and horror that had brought death. From what Xan could see as his small party of companions approached the walls now, little had changed. No city should be so quiet. Stranger still, the sky above Yillan Reach was black with clouds that hung like smoke just above the city walls. No sunlight poured through the darkness, and yet no rain fell from those ponderous and evil looking clouds either. The dark haze refused to move from where it hung despite the wind that blew heavily through the trees, still sharp with cold from the only recently passed winter. It was as though the walls were gripping the haze to themselves like a beggar holding his cloak to his shoulders to fend off the frost.

"This place scares me." Little Crow said, breaking the uneasy quiet. His voice held none of its normal levity.

"It should." Xan replied. "It's hungry, and we're what it’s hungry for. We need to be on our guard. You can assume that they already know we're here."

"They?" Crow asked.

"The Drayid." It was Kassa who responded. "They need our flesh to house the lost souls of their people."

"The Drayid are just tales to scare children." Crow replied. Xan could tell it was a reflexive reply.

"Like Trolls and magic swords?" The assassin quipped with a grin.

Little Crow didn't reply to that.

Kassa took the moment of silence to explain. "The Drayid weren't the monsters that the mages have made them out to be. If it weren't for the Order of Mages, the Drayid would be living side-by-side with us now. The mages imprisoned all of their people and then created a version of history that would suit their own purpose. It didn't happen immediately, but over the years the mages’ version of the truth became the one that everyone accepted. The Drayid were banished into a prison made by the mages, but the mages didn't fully understand the magic they were using to imprison their foes. The results were that the Drayid were driven mad, and their supposedly impenetrable prison was actually fractured when the Drayid were forced into it."

Xandrith nodded. "The Drayid can use the mechanna magic to slip into bodies and live in our world again, but it's not what they really want. They've traded one horrible existence for another, though apparently they consider this horror the lesser of the two. They're angry and more than a little insane, and all they want is to be entirely free of the prison the mages forced them into. If you thought the stories your parents told you of the Drayid were terrifying, you should see what they've become."

"And we're really going to walk straight into this?" Crow asked, the fear that held his normal levity at bay was still heavily upon him.

"I've had my doubts." Xandrith answered with a straight face. "I'm not immune to fear, but who else is going to do this? Little Crow, you've thrown your lot in with the Trolls, and there is no future for us with them. If I don't go into Yillan Reach and try to open the Great Vault our world is doomed. The thing the trolls worship as a god thrives on chaos. It wants to see everything burn and writhe in a tide of destruction. Worse, it will have access to the power to make that happen. If I didn't believe that with a certainty I wouldn't be here now."

Crow seemed skeptical. "You're an assassin. You kill people for money. Do you really think you can save the world?"

Xan grinned. "Wouldn't that be a great joke?"

"The first time I saw you Xan, I knew you were something special." Kassa chuckled.

The assassin let his features dip into a frown. "As I recall, the first time you saw me you shot me in the shoulder. That's not a great way to treat something special."

Kassa nodded. "I was aiming for the wall, though. You can hardly hold that against me."

Xan chuckled. "You did save my life later, so I guess we're even. Besides, I remember the first time I saw you as well. I knew instantly that you had a beautiful back end."

It was Kas's turn to frown. "It's the end of the world and you're still going to be so crude?"