Bertan`s quest - Michelle Tarynne (best beach reads of all time txt) 📗

"I guess it pays off to be of slave origins. They do carry gossip like no other between house-lines."
"That they do." Seven smiled so openly that her eyes crinkled beneath her mask.
"Can any of you just explain, to those of us who are still clueless, what you are talking about?" Evan said impatiently. Dialogue and conversation were not one of her strongest qualities. She was known to have troubles with suppressing her uncontrollable thirst for adventure that would start once they could start moving.
"The Swords have been barren for some time," Seven quickly explained, right in time to tame one of Evan's famous rages.
"What that makes us then? The last Sword children?" Evan asked, finally satisfied that she was gaining the ability to hold off her emotional rages, at least while she still talked. Her infamous lack of control was the most un-Sword-like thing there was.
"No, you moron! It makes us taken, not born into being a Sword." There was a kind of mental transformation Seven went through that made her suddenly fierce and unapologetic for the slower minds of her companions.
"Is that even possible, to be turned into a Sword?" Ashte asked surprised.
"Yes, I only have been a Sword for a few cycles. They call it ‘making a child’ as opposed to bearing one," Genes shared his own experience before anyone had the time to gather thoughts.
"Do you mean that every slave could be just made a Sword at any point of their life, and drink the Juice without going Mad?" Pat asked incredulously.
"Basically, yes," Genes answered hesitantly. "Though, it would make no sense if they could recall their life before that. The hate doesn't just go away. A gift of an almost eternal life wouldn’t erase Swords sins."
"How would they decide, which child would be made into a Sword, and which would be turned into a slave?" Pat asked again, distress marrying his clear voice.
"You would have to ask that question of your Mothers," Genes said with a visible unease.
A prolonged silence fell upon them, as they began to think about the revelations and their implications. For a long time, the only audible sound around was their breathing.
Then, Pat was furiously muttering along the lines of, "I'm going to kill every single one of them."
"We have to accept, there is no blood connection linking us to Swords, while there is an obvious link between us and our origins that we felt just a while ago. Are we ready to accept that we are Anaerthers?" Dawn asked unexpectedly, "Our real families might be long gone, but our real home is still waiting for us. Are we willing to take this quest to discover our true origins?" The silence reigned again until, one after one, they voiced and humped their acceptance.
"Then Genes, lead us to where the Fates mean to take us." Dawn concluded, motioning others to pick up the shrouded body, Genes held in his arms.
"Follow me," was all that he could say. He unfolded the small piece of map that the Unnamed handed him. He smirked and muttered, "How else? Just please be careful with that body we are carrying, she is just sleeping and I intend to wake her up when we get home.”
“Come on! She is dead, don’t you see it?” Evan confronted Genes, “What? He better get used to that thought, “ she added when everyone just stared at her blankly.
“Have you even carried her for a moment?” Ashte asked.
“Not yet, we still have a long way ahead,” Evan evaded.
“Then you don’t know yet, that this body is still warm to the touch. Heart may have stopped it’s gift of life, but something makes her still alive. Like Genes just said. She is just sleeping,”
“But that’s impossible. No one is immortal that much!” Evan wailed dissatisfied with the answer she got. ”Genes, how is that possible?”
“I don’t know,” he said, “It’s the power of the Anaerther Calling that keeps seemingly dead body warm and soft. But it’s only a tale I’ve heard once. The only power that can make her undie, is where our Home lies, its eternal light will bring her back.”
“How?” was all Evan could ask as they resumed walking.
“I don’t know,” he smiled, “I guess we just have to get there.”
 
Only silence followed their steps as they crawled through the cracks and shafts, careful enough to keep the shrouded body of Bertan unharmed.
The tunnel Genes decided to follow wasn't an easy one. It was filled with dust, fumes, and creeping ivy clinging to their robes. The impenetrable darkness crept in as the glowing and glassy lava veins that adorned the walls, gave way to the water dripping from the ceiling. It was flowing down the corridor like a tiny, mean river, and it became the only reference, Genes followed through the rugged opening into the mountain's deepest interiors. 14

 The New Sword King didn’t take well the fact that the Unnamed who carried the name Sil, had been granted the opening to leave his, currently the Ruling House, to join the Second Line House of Ash. Cassess’ outrage at this betrayal could not be tamed. His pride, bled by the unforeseen blow, craved blood and vengeance. Yet, he was very much so unable to react on the outside, aware that the only thing he could do, considering the situation, was to have the whole Second Line out to bleed and die out, and that meant to have them all close by his side.
Upon the Swords arrival at the battlefield gates, the air seemed to thicken, and the darkness became even more impenetrable to their eyes. No lights could be deployed to help them along the way when the last pieces of the tracks were put in their place. The platforms were waiting at the ready, for the final sign to deliver the unbroken Titans to reclaim the Wall as their own again.
The Unnamed chose not to reveal his name to any more people than to an unlikely friend and to the certain enemy. He didn’t feel worthy enough to gain a name yet, so he remained unnamed, like an idea that was still to come. He worked tirelessly alongside Ash to deliver the final track pieces to where they belonged. They worked all around the inaccessible, and immense Ombre Valley, where the spies had found out was the main Axe troops base.
The Sword King Cassess’ idea was to crush the Axes before they could spread around and defend the Wall. At the same time, some smaller teams would access the Wall and fairly undefended Inner Block. The Unnamed did not like the odds of attacking the valley at all. It was surrounded by the Mad Mountain Range and the fire-rivers, while safely nesting next to the Wall and the easiest way to get there was to actually go through the Wall. To add to this insanity, the Valley's area was vast, filled to its full capacity with Axe soldiers.
The Unnamed didn't like the King's recklessness and the underestimation of the enemy numbers. Of course, the Swords' size was a big advantage, but the uneasy and overlooked truth was that some of them became too big to leave their strongholds, while the fire of battle has long expired in the younger cores. It was nothing more than a mad dream of the grandeur to bring back the old times and reclaim Mines while Sword kingdom fared reasonably well without them, the Unnamed knew.
Once the tracks were completed, the platforms would deliver the Second Line's warriors to the foothills of the Mad Mountains, even before other teams would even arrive, and that was another fact that made the Unnamed feel even more uneasy.
"It's looking a little bit suicidal, Ash," he said grimly, watching the first platforms arrive soundlessly, bringing the hard warriors to the battle that would start soon.
"It makes no sense. If we skip the Ombre Valley and go straight for the Inner Block, we could just take and defend it. It's much easier than taking it after dealing with the army that fakes the unawareness of our arrival. I think all the soldiers are there, and that it leaves Inner Block undefended," Ash agreed quietly.
"Their platforms within the Wall are quick to spread their troops around, but they don’t hold the right capacity for them all to appear at the right place at the right time. We could exploit that weakness," the Unnamed continued.
"Don’t forget that we have the same problem with our platforms. Before we gather to set out everyone in the view range, we will be noticed. But then again, breaching that Wall would take time and effort too. It would cost us the time that their soldiers need," Ash said.
"There is no easy way into this war…" the Unnamed broke mid-sentence, for the General of the Second Line arrived.
"Ladies, what are you gossiping about here? Are we getting a bit anxious to fight with our slaves?" the female General Wass mocked the much smaller and younger men. "Let us show you how things are done," she whistled arrogantly.
The flood of hard Titan bodies took the Mad Mountains' slopes with ease and speed that warmed the hearts of Ash and the Unnamed. It gave them enough hope to pick up their invisible blades and close their rational minds. A Sword Warrior had to be an unthinking machine, going strictly with an instinct to kill anything that could breathe. Second Line followed mindlessly the first strike team, spilling through the Mad Mountains to meet their fates, for the Valley and the Axe soldiers waited anxiously for their arrival.
Howls of the war-horns blew into the silent night. A waiting sea of Axe soldiers was oblivious to the kind of predators they would face until that point. They didn’t waiver, though, they didn’t take one step back.
It was not about courage anymore for any of the Axes. The maddened blood spirits entered their bodies, just as the fire-wells were being prepared to be fired up, and soft odors spread through the air. The fight of the Madness against the Ancient started, and would bring no final winners to celebrate. Not one felt fear or pain when two waves of hard bodies clashed together in a deadly spiral dance.
The second wave crashed upon the fallen bodies of the first. The third wave swirled tirelessly when all of the fire-wells blazed up, carrying out the unholiest of the stone-melting fires. Ash and the Unnamed got separated from their burning peers, and it brought the sanity back into their war-ridden minds.
"This will not go as planned," Ash whistled and smirked, certainly happy with the way events were playing out.
"It’s to be expected, considering the way things have been going for us recently. Do we have other plans?" the Unnamed didn’t try to hide his concern, unlike Ash, he always had the best of his people at core.
"Let's leave the planning to the King," Ash smiled openly at the thought of King's unsavory reaction to the fires.
The two Swords meandered carefully back to join with the remaining forces at the same time that the Red Axe King watched the tall, blazing walls of fire encircling the Wall with glee. He could almost feel the linking with the King of Swords rage at this development.
***
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