Bonds That Break (The Havoc Chronicles Book 3) (29 page)

I heard the Havoc before I saw it. A loud roar rent the air before us. The Havoc had obviously felt our approach and was warning us off. I for one was not inclined to heed that warning. This was not my first Havoc, and I was certain it would not be my last.

A house much larger than those around it seemed to be the origin of the noise. It obviously belonged to some sort of noble or lord or whatever these English landowners called themselves. The house was surrounded by a large stone wall, but the roof appeared to have collapsed.

The Havoc was inside the house, and I was willing to venture that this particular lord's wealth had been unable to save him.

Stealth was now pointless as the Havoc could feel us as well as we could feel it. I pulled out my tiger hook swords and held them in both hands, ready for anything. The bone handles felt smooth in my grip, polished to perfection over the hundreds of years of my use.

The other Berserkers followed my lead and pulled out their weapons. A curved bone cutlass for Yul, a long bone spear for Davu and a sturdy bone varé for Scottie. We had all bonded our weapons and knew how to use them well.

I motioned for the other Berserkers to surround the house. We were going to leap over the outer walls and onto the Havoc through the collapsed roof. 

But before we could execute my plan, the walls shattered into thousands of fragments and flew through the air toward us. The stone wasn't much of a problem since it had never been living, but it was closely followed by long tentacles as Navitan reached out and grasped for us.

I pushed off to dive out of the way, but a piece of loose stone under my feet caused me to slip. Instead of leaping gracefully out of the way, I stumbled to my knees and felt the crushing tentacle of Navitan wrap around my waist.

I was so surprised that my swords slipped from my fingers and clattered uselessly to the ground. I was lifted into the air and drawn towards the horrible beaked maw of Navitan.

A part of the Havoc bore a strong resemblance to the giant squids of the sea. Once, near my home village in China, I had seen one washed up onto the shore.

Navitan had nine long tentacles, each as thick as my chest, covered with suction cups, and tapering out as they extended more than fifty feet. He had big, round eyes and a sharp beak for a mouth that was large and powerful enough to bite a person in half. But this creature was designed for land and walked on six insectile legs. The leg joints bent at strange angles, but allowed him to move very quickly and with great balance.

I used all my Berserker strength to break out of Navitan's grip, but I couldn’t get the leverage I needed to free myself. I thrashed about futilely while he brought me closer to my death.

Before Navitan could consume me, a flash of white sliced at the tentacle holding me. Golden ichor flowed from the beast, and Navitan dropped me to the ground.

I landed on my feet and crouched to absorb the impact of the fall. Before me stood the man who had freed me – Scottie. He continued to slice at Navitan, distracting him from me.

"Go get your swords!" he yelled. At least that was what I thought he had said. I wasn't going to question the man who saved my life.

I ran to get my swords.

With a flash of white light, the scene changed.

The feeling of Nausea came quickly and unexpectedly. Osadyn was here. As if we had rehearsed this a thousand times, Rhys, Eric, Aata and myself 'zerked and ran toward the Havoc.

There before us was the unknown Berserker we had been searching for. He fought valiantly against the onrushing tide of Bringers, but he was new and obviously untrained. It was only a matter of time until he would be overwhelmed.

We rushed into battle, taking out Bringers on the run. We needed to save the Berserker, but Osadyn was the real danger. Rhys rushed ahead and tackled Osadyn head on. He was a relatively young Berserker, less than two hundred years, but he was a gifted fighter, his own skills even surpassing my own. I respected his ability more than any other I had encountered.

"Get Mallika," Rhys yelled. "Now!"

Although he hadn't said my name, I knew Eric would never take orders from anyone, and Aata would be too enthralled with the fight to even pay attention.

That left me.

I rushed back through the trees to the house. Mallika stood outside with Kara.

"Shing, what's–"

Before she had time to even ask the question, I scooped up Mallika and started running back to the battle. By the time we had arrived, most of the Bringers had been killed. Osadyn realized the danger of having Rhys and Mallika together and called his Bringers back for defense. They managed to dislodge Rhys and, once clear, Osadyn disappeared.

We spread out and finished off the last of the Bringers. We didn’t want to leave any wandering around. We killed those we could and herded the rest back toward Rhys who finished them off. As always, I was amazed to see the skill he had with his varé. Such talent was born once in a generation, and this was the first time it had hundreds of years to develop and perfect.

I turned my attention to the new Berserker. I remembered what it had been like to change for the first time and not understand what was happening to me.

I held up my hands in a peaceful gesture and walked toward him.

"Stop. Don’t come any closer," the Berserker said.

I put my arms down. "We aren’t going to hurt you," I said.

Eric stepped in, and in his typical overbearing way took the center stage and tried to calm the Berserker. To help calm him we all let go of our power and let our glows fade.

When it came time for the Berserker to let go, it took him a while to figure out how. I could understand that. Mastering your emotions takes years of practice. Something I had plenty of.

But when the Berserker let go of his power, I was taken completely by surprise. With the glow gone I could see the Berserker clearly for the first time.

It was a girl.

Instinctively I dropped into a defensive crouch, but it was out of shock rather than actual fear. I had known this day would come for several hundred years.

She was a pretty girl. Young and naive. She had no idea that her existence meant we would all soon die.

With a flash of white light, the scene changed again.

I knew they were coming for me. I had helped Madison hide and then made myself as easy to find as possible. Keeping my cell phone turned on made it easy for them to trace should they go that route, and if not I 'zerked periodically to broadcast my location at the Berserker house.

I had thought Josiah and Arthur had honor, but their recent actions had shown me otherwise. They were capable fighters, all Berserkers learned that skill over time, but I had many hundreds of years more practice than either of them.

I would make them pay for their lack of honor.

I heard the car pull into the driveway. Sloppy. They gave away their one advantage – the element of surprise. I may have known they would come for me, but at least they could have attempted to take me off guard.

The front door opened. I had deliberately left it unlocked. "Oh, Shing!" called Josiah in an annoying sing-song voice. "Come out, come out, wherever you are."

His little children's chant was even more ridiculous since I was standing in the middle of the living room in plain sight. They may not have honor, but I did. I would not resort to tricks or surprises. I did not need such things.

Josiah's eyes widened when he saw me standing with my swords at the ready. He pulled out his varé and smiled at me. "Well, well, what have we here?" he said. "And here I thought we were going to have to hunt you down. Looks like Christmas came early this year."

"You have disgraced the Berserkers and all we stand for," I said. "I now give you the opportunity to take your own life and regain a portion of that honor."

Josiah tipped his hat back and looked up. "Hmmm. You're giving me the opportunity to take my own life? Gee, how's a man supposed to pass that up?" He grinned at me mockingly. "Thanks, but I'm going to pass. How about you tell us where Madison is and make this nice and easy?"

Anger coursed through me. How could they even think I would betray her? They were projecting their own cowardice and fear of death onto me.

"You had your chance," I said and 'zerked. I twisted around and in a single motion attached my swords together. By the time I finished my turn I had doubled the reach of my weapon.

Josiah attempted to move out of the way, but the increased length took him by surprise, and he did not move far enough away. My blade caught him across the right arm and sliced him along his chest.

The coward howled in pain and jumped back. "I could use some help in here!" he yelled.

But even as he spoke I had once again split my swords into two and pressed the attack. Josiah attempted to parry, but he was clearly unused to fighting someone with two weapons. I blocked with one sword and hooked with the other. With a single jerk I pulled his varé from his grasp and sent it flying across the room.

I pushed Josiah against a wall and put my sword to his throat. "I will let you die the honorless death you deserve."

"Stop," said a voice from the door. "Do not kill him." Despite my intentions, my sword remained still and my arm felt strangely unable to move. 

Nakai walked into the house, followed by Sunee and Arthur.

"Thanks for nothing, Arthur," said Josiah. "At what point were you going to jump in here?"

Arthur shrugged. "I prefer to pick my battles and only fight the necessary ones. Nakai has this under control."

I continued to will my arm to move forward and take Josiah's life, but I could do no such thing. "What have you done to me?" I asked.

"Ah, Shing. My simple friend," Nakai said. "We just want to know the location of dear young Madison. We need to speak with her and ask some questions."

"You lie," I said. I continued to push forward. I only needed to move my blade a fraction of an inch.

"Hey, you want to ask him to let up?" Josiah said. "This is getting a bit uncomfortable.

"Shing, let him go."

Slowly, against my will, my arm lowered. How was this happening?

"Lovely isn't it?" asked Nakai. "We placed a haze on you years ago. Amazing how long they seem to last."

I listened to her words, but they didn’t seem to make sense. What did a haze have to do with my obeying her?

Arthur took a step toward Nakai, and I lunged. Or rather, I attempted to. I got my swords in the air, but once again, I found I could not swing them. Something was causing my body to betray my mind.

"Now, now," said Sunee. "We can't have you doing any more of that. You will not attack any of us ever again."

I felt something shift in my mind – a mental tug. Could she possibly expect me to do that?

Except I couldn’t. I could move my arms when I had no intention of attacking, but as soon as I thought about using my swords, my arms became unresponsive and useless.

"You will now tell us where Madison is," Sunee said. She took several steps until she was right in front of me. I desperately wanted to use my sword.

I felt a strange compulsion to tell Sunee what I knew of Madison's disappearance, but I managed to stop myself from speaking.

Sunee looked me straight in the eyes and smiled. "I see," she said. "It looks like I'm going to need to do this the hard way."

She held up her hands and I felt... something touching my mind. I suddenly felt relaxed and calm.

"Tell us where Madison is."

Of course I would tell them what I knew. I opened my mouth, but realized what I was doing and closed my mouth again.

I would not betray Madison.

"Impressive," said Nakai. "He has great strength of will." She looked at me appraisingly. "Break him."

"Tell me," said Sunee.

I felt a sharp pain in my mind. The compulsion to tell what I knew was overwhelming. I dropped to my knees, my swords still grasped in my hands. I would not betray Madison. I would not betray the daughter of the man that had saved my life.

I would not.

I would not!

"Tell me where Madison is!" Sunee shouted.

The pain in my head doubled. It felt like hot brands were pressed against every inch of my skull. I knew that the pain would go away if only I would tell Sunee what she wanted to know.

"Never," I said through clenched teeth.

"You will tell me!" Sunee said.

The pain doubled again. Then grew exponentially. My vision blurred from the overwhelming agony. I felt my resolve slipping. It was only a matter of time until I had to obey.

My hands still held my swords. I couldn’t use them to kill my attackers, but that did not mean they were useless to me.

I dropped the sword in my left hand and grasped the remaining sword with both hands. The pain in my head made it difficult to concentrate, but I pushed forward.

I lifted the sword, but made no effort to attack anyone. Instead, I plunged the sword into my own abdomen. Pain flooded my body, drowning out the command from Sunee.