Divided (#1 Divided Destiny) (24 page)

Yannick’s face twisted in amusement, so she decided to cut him off at the knees. She was in no mood to indulge his depravity, and it was important that she told him what he wanted and expected to hear.

“It would be a useful bargaining chip. The more leverage we have, the better. Not that I have any intention of saving their world,” Eleanor sneered. “That would hardly be of any benefit to us.”

“I did find one of these visitors from Earth,” Yannick admitted, a malicious grin spread across his face. “He proved quite loquacious once properly inspired.”

“I’m sure you learned everything he knew before you killed him,” Eleanor said dryly. She knew Yannick well enough to know that whatever poor soul he’d captured was no longer living, and probably thankful for that.

“There is no spell, no magic that would free Earth, because Earth has no magic,” Yannick revealed with a dramatic flourish.

“How is that possible?” Eleanor asked automatically, struggling to comprehend what such a reality would look like.

Magic was so woven into the fabric of their world; it had been present since the dawn of their time. Some said that their world came into being with the birth of magic. How a world could exist without it…it just didn’t seem possible.

“I do not know, and I do not care,” Yannick said dismissively, for once telling the truth.

When he had first learned of another world, he had felt such glee. He would become greater than the Emperor ever was; he would rule over not just all of this land, but all of another. Finding that Earth had no magic had thoroughly ended his interest in it. If he traveled there, then he would be powerless, just another nobody, and that was something he could not abide. Power was everything.

“I suppose we do not need an actual way to help them, just so long as they believe we can. I just prefer to control all the angles. The best lies always have an element of the truth. That is why it is important to discover more about the legend of the light in the darkness. I believe it is connected to the method by which they traveled here. If we control their route home, that is all the bargaining power we will ever need,” Eleanor pointed out.

Her eyes scanned Yannick’s expression, but he still didn’t give anything away. Instead, he bowed low in exaggerated fake deference.

“I will endeavor to find out all I can, your Majesty.”

In a flash of flame, he was gone as suddenly as he had arrived. Yannick had far more sources than her knights could ever dream of, but he was slippery, and wouldn’t volunteer anything unless it benefitted him.

Eleanor hoped her knights would find the answers she sought; she couldn’t trust her mentor in this matter. In fact, as much as it chilled her to admit it, she had long known she couldn’t trust Yannick in any matter. With the introduction of these strangers, she feared that the time for them to part ways would come sooner than she had thought.

The careful balance had been challenged. The future did not feel quite as set as it once had.

*****

Kaslea was a naval kingdom. Therefore, securing a boat had taken literally a snap of Prince Edmund’s fingers. A runner had been sent down to the docks; the ship was ready to set sail the moment they arrived.

It was a large ocean-faring wooden vessel. The sails were a crisp white, and the flag of Kaslea flew proudly from the mast. Leo privately thought it looked like it belonged in a heritage museum, or on a movie set for a pirate film. The ship just had that classic look, like everything else had in this world. It wasn’t alien, it was familiar—just not familiar to their time period or outside of fiction.

They weren’t sailing far, just a couple of hours off the coast to the island Cyrus had indicated.

“Land ahoy,” Don smirked.

Mathis had gone below deck, but the three marines had taken position up on the bow. The ship cut through the gentle waves with ease. The spray didn’t reach halfway up the hull, but the tang of the salt air was still strong. Don pointed ahead of them; the bump on the horizon had been visible for some time. However, now the details of the island started to become clear. The shore was golden sand, but that soon gave way to a dense-looking forest. Leo’s eyes could pick out what looked like an overgrown path towards the right.

“Cyrus sure has a good racket going,” Don mused, shaking his head in admiration. “All that bull about an offering. Sure, it’s an offering, one for whoever is smart enough to stick around and take the free loot—likely the puppet master himself.”

Leo snorted. “He sure does know how to get what he wants. I’m just praying he delivers this time,” he added darkly.

Don’s eyes flashed, a shadow across his countenance. They were of like mind on this. Against their memory of all the people back home, the deaths and the suffering, the sheer agony of not knowing, the near certainty that all was likely already lost, it was surreal standing there as they were, in the bright sunshine, the gentle splash of the sea against the hull as the ship cut through the water.

There were no sounds of war, no screams of agony or despair. If this mission could find a superweapon to save the world, then it was important, but Leo still couldn’t shake the feeling that he was in the wrong place, a feeling shared with both Don and Nick. They would rather fight and die with their brothers than survive uselessly.

When they were several hundred yards from the island, the ship slowed to a stop, the anchor was dropped, and the ship settled, just bobbing slightly from the waves that lapped against the hull. The crew lowered a rowboat for them to go ashore. Mathis appeared. He staggered over to the edge and grabbed the side tightly. He was clearly ill at ease on the ship, the heavy armor perhaps affecting his balance. The knight could ride a horse for days, but clearly had no sea legs.

“The ship’s draft can’t get us any closer, I’m guessing,” Nick commented, pointing out what he thought was the obvious.

Mathis shook his head. “That is true, but that isn’t why we have dropped anchor here.” At their curious look, Mathis raised an eyebrow. “The crew didn’t tell you the story?”

“No, they didn’t,” Leo said slowly, eyes wary.

When they had boarded, the captain had politely requested that they stayed out of the way and didn’t bother the crew. Given that they wanted to accomplish the mission as quickly as possible, that had been an easy request to grant. The crew had looked at them curiously, their clothing marking them as strangers to their land, but no one had said one word to the marines.

“Ah, well, this island is well known to all who earn their living on the sea. The woven black silk that we have been sent to retrieve is rare and highly prized. The only known source is this island; it occurs naturally, but we know not how or why,” Mathis explained.

“I’m guessing its rarity isn’t down to demand outstripping supply?” Leo said sardonically. Cyrus had been thorough, for him, in the instructions they had been given. However, he should have known that the manipulative old goat had left something crucial out of the story.

“While the silk is worth a small fortune, few dare attempt to retrieve it. In order to profit, one would have to leave the island alive. A feat few manage. In fact it has only occurred twice in my lifetime,” Mathis finished before pasting on a smile. “A minor challenge, I’m sure, for heroes such as yourselves.”

“Oh, absolutely. It’ll be great,” Don agreed sarcastically. He rolled his eyes and Leo shrugged.

“We’re here now. We get in, we get the silk, we get out,” Leo summarized. It was just another mission.

Mathis climbed down the side of the ship first. Not for the first time, Leo wondered if the armor was more hindrance than help. The small rowboat rocked dangerously when the knight hit it. The three marines quickly followed, and Don took the oars. With powerful strokes, they hit the island within minutes. Leo grimaced when they jumped out; as close as they were, they still had to wade the last few feet and pull the boat to beach it so it didn’t float away. The water came to mid-shin, soaking through his boots. That would be uncomfortable later.

They had been provided with a large wooden pole, which they needed to roll the silk around. Nick grabbed it from the boat. Leo gestured for them to hold. Mathis had local knowledge; he would take point. The knight surveyed the area before pointing to the path Leo had spied from the ship.

“It is down there that we will find our prize.” Mathis drew his sword ready and strode off.

“Let’s go. Don, watch our six,” Leo ordered. He raised his assault rifle and followed after Mathis, who was almost at the tree line.

Leo blinked hard when he crossed the line, his eyes not adjusting fast enough to the darkness of the forest. The foliage was dense in this part. He sniffed but could smell nothing but earth and trees. He couldn’t hear anything besides their own movements. No sign yet of whatever killed the would-be profiteers of the natural silk.

Mathis slashed at the trees occasionally, clearing the path, but they had only been walking a few minutes when the path opened up into a clearing.

Nick whistled. “Okay, that’s pretty impressive.”

The silk was everywhere, hanging in strips between the trees. Leo looked up and saw that the silk formed a thin haze, covering the clearing like a canopy. It was thin enough to cast just a slight shadow on the land despite its black coloring.

“At least we don’t have to hunt for the stuff,” Don noted pragmatically. Leo nodded; they would be able to get more than what they needed and not touch a fraction of what was available.

“Nick, help Mathis collect the silk. Don and I are going to check out the area,” Leo ordered. He could see another path on the opposite side of the clearing. Surrounded by the forest, he wasn’t keen to just wait for whatever ‘death’ was on this island to make an appearance.

This path was even more overgrown than the entry path. However, it was wider, and sunlight managed to penetrate through, casting down narrow beams of light. The ground sloped, and they hadn’t gone far when Leo saw that it opened up again, but not into a clearing this time.

The tree line gave way to a small cliff, just a single story in height, a deep granite gray, mapping the way to the cave at the bottom. The inky blackness of the cave’s maw looked sinister. Leo didn’t need the shiver of dread creeping his spine to know, with bone-chilling certainty, that whatever danger was on this island called that cave home.

“Well, that looks homey,” Don joked absently, his senses obviously just as rattled as he panned his rifle around the area, eyes alert for any sign of movement.

Leo was just trying to think of a witty comeback when something else answered Don’s statement. There was a clicking noise, then a strange skittering sound. Leo took a step back.

“Time to go,” Leo murmured urgently.

At the mouth of the cave, a shape slowly emerged from the darkness, becoming more defined until its identity was confirmed. It was a spider, the same size as a small car, jet black and hairy, with eight legs and a terrifying number of eyes. The secret of what produced the silk was solved, but that was one answer Leo would have been happy to have done without.

Don raised his assault rifle.

“Hold your fire,” Leo hissed desperately.

Don looked askance at him, and then his eyes caught what he had thought was a white crystal formation at the side of the cave. They were no crystals—they were eggs. More shapes—smaller shapes, but with just as many eyes gleaming through the darkness—started to appear.

“Oh, hell no,” Don swore.

“Run!” Leo ordered, and the two marines turned and sprinted. They didn’t need to look behind them to tell they were being pursued; they could hear the sound of the spiders chattering.

Leo crashed into the undergrowth, uncaring of the small tree branches that snagged at his uniform. He crashed through, barreling into the clearing. Nick was holding the wooden pole and Mathis was winding the silk. Thankfully, the silk was already thick around the pole. They had enough, which was a relief, as they were not fighting those things.

“Evac!” Leo shouted.

He stopped and turned, one eye on Nick, the other on the path they had fled from. Mathis slashed the silk with his sword, cutting off what they had gathered from the rest. With surprising speed, the knight ran for the exit path, Nick on his heels. As soon as they started moving, Leo turned, just in time to see the forest start to come alive, the spiders reaching the clearing.

Nick had his hands full with the silk, trusting the others to have his back. Don fired a short burst of gunfire into the trees, hoping to buy them some time as they desperately fled back to the shore and hopefully safety.

It was a headlong sprint through the forest, and the sound of chattering spiders filled the air around them. In the dark, it was hard to tell how close they were. Leo’s heart filled his throat, expecting any moment for a spider to swing out from the foliage, its pincers sinking deep into his flesh.

They burst onto the sandy shore. In the open space, Nick sprinted past Mathis to reach the boat first. He threw the pole into the bottom of the boat and started to push it away from the shore. Mathis all but threw himself into the boat. It tipped dangerously, but it was still too close to shore to capsize.

Leo and Don, splashed knee-deep into the water, hauling themselves up as the boat floated further away from the shore and the gathering swell of spiders that was fast approaching. Nick was the last to jump in, the water chest-high by the time Don took the oars and frantically started to row them further away.

“Stand ready,” Leo ordered, crouching down and aiming his weapon at the horde of death behind them. Nick twisted to do the same, but the spiders stopped at the water’s edge, a clear foot between them and the lapping waves.

Leo’s heart was pounding in his ears. He took one breath, then two, then three; the island was getting smaller, and the spiders had yet to dive into the water after them. He released his weapon, letting it hang down against his vest. Laughter bubbled in pure relief.

“Guess we found their weakness—water.” Don grinned. “Explains why they are trapped on that island.”