Steven Montano: Crown of Ash

“What?” Kane said with a flippant smile. “Oh, no…you know. It’s all good.”

Jade laughed.

She was such an enigma to him. Even with as much power as she supposedly possessed, Kane though t Jade lacked that harde ned edge he was used to seeing i n other mercenaries.

Well…most of the time, at least. Keep your head straight, pal. She could fry your balls off with a gesture.

She turned back to the open desert.

“What did you see?” he asked.

“I saw something the vampires might want,” she said. “We should go and check it out.”

Blacksand had to date managed to stay out of the war between the So uthern Claw and the Ebon Cities, in part because the criminal portcity only had a relatively small human population. Most of the inhabitants of the ramshackle and crime-ridden place were Doj, Vuul, Gol and the little-seen Draj, a race of Cruj offshoots who kept to the shadows and were generally distrusted and feared. There was no true ruling authority in Blacksand. As had been the case in Kane’s home city of Kalakkaii, the crime guilds competed for control. I n Black sand the upper hand unquestionably belonged to Klos Vago and T he Shard, but Kane understood they’d recently been challenged by a new band of thrill- seeking mercenaries and robbers called t he Shadow Guild.

Yeah, I do n’t see that ending well.

Unfortunately for Vago, holding the reins of power in the city also meant that he had to deal with the city’s problems. W hile he maintained a fairly traditional city militia that handle d local troubles, the problem of the downed arcane barricade warranted sending out the heavy hitters to investigate.

And since you own our asses at the mom ent, why waste your goons when you can send us instead? Seriously, we get all of the fun jobs.

Sightings of Ebo n Cities scouts in the region — which was unusual in and of itself, since Blacksand was literally hundreds of miles away from both Southern Claw and vampire territories — had forced Vago to take some initiative and find out what was going on. The last thing the Shard or any of the nomads, natives or settlers of the southern wastelands wanted was for one of the major powers to move in and start taking over the area.

Kane thought about Danica, stuck back in the city with Vago, who both of them suspected had no intention of ever keeping up his end of the bargain. He was worried about her. She’d probably kill him if she knew that, but that didn’t change anything.

He thought about Cross, and wondered if they’d ever be able to bring him back. He’d not woken since they’d rescued him from the ruins of Shadowmere Keep, ca rried him across the wastelands and hitched a ride on the Dubrakki Railway to get to Blacksand. He ’d not stirred in the three weeks since they’d found him. Not once.

Kane shuddered, and tried to calm his mind. He’d been at odds ever since Ekko had died, but his new family — there was no other way he could think of them now, not after all they’d been through together — had helped him heal his wounds. In a way, Cross’ s disappearance had brought he and Danica closer. They trusted each other now, and worked well together.

That was important, he thought. I spent two years blaming Danica for what had happened to Ekko. It was past time for me to get over that shit.

Before, it had been Cross that had fused the team together, but Mike felt sure that even after Cross came back the three of them would be even more tightly knit than ever before. Others came and went, but it was those three, the survivors of Karamanganji i, who held the tightest bond.

If he comes back, he thought. If.

“There,” Jade said.

The Rakzeri vessel tilted back and forth as freezing ocean wind batter ed the underbelly of the ship. Everyone held onto support bars or the backs of the seats. Weapons and armor lined both walls of the vessel, and various gauges, valves and scopes littered the ceiling like plumbing pipes. The unstable floor made Kane’s stomach turn, but he held on with muscular arms lined with tattoos — eyes, blades, suns, pyramids, crescent moons — and tried to balance the weight of the blades and the HK45s on his shoulder harness.

“Fly much, Maur?” he laughed. “I’m about to lose my lunch if you keep up your Red Baron shtick…”

“Maur will ignore that comment,” the Gol replied. “ That is lucky for you, because if he hadn’t you would get out and walk.”

“That m ight be safer,” Ronan laughed.

“You girls are funny,” Sol smiled. “Now shut up and keep your minds on business.”

“Maur should warn,” he shouted back, “that he can easily open the bay doors and dump all of you out.”

Kane walked up next to the cockpit, a small metal recess surrounded by tubes filled with hydraulic fluids and heating pumps that kept the vessel’s interior atmosphere bearable even in adverse weather conditions. The pilot’s seat was pressed tight against the forward plating, and there were so many panels, monitors and dials it was actually difficult to look through the forward window and see what was in front of them. Jade stood directly behind Maur, and as Kane came close she pointed again.

“Look,” she said, and her voice was frightened.

The terrain ahead looked like any beach along that stretch of the coast. Metallic white fog rolled along the bleach white sands and half-buried rock formations.

But about a klick ahead of them was a wide expanse of dark ground surrounded by a crumbling circle of black pillars. A n unmistakable air of power gripped the area, a faint and shimmering black ice glow.

“There’s something in there,” Jade said. “Something that’s hidden from plain sight.”

“Can you…you know…scout it?” Kane asked. “With your spirit?”

“I’m sort of hesitant to do that,” she said quietly. “Something isn’t right here. ” She took a breath and nodded. “But you’re right…that’s what needs to be done.”

T he air twist ed and stiffen ed as her spirit shifted away from her body and exited the craft. Jade’s feet lift ed off the ship’s floor. White light shone from her eyes. Kane heard cold whispers, a winter’s breath.

Up ahead, t he space within the pillars shifted. Pale sands burned to black and twisted in to the sky in a tangle of ink-dark coils. Pulsating pockets of light appeared in the darkness, a shine of frozen stars.

“Whoa, ” he said.

The darkness rose. T endrils of shadow joined together in a wide arc. A shifting archway of dust rose up, and in just a matter of seconds it stood a hundred feet high. T he space within the arch was like a cold dark mirror filled with choking vapors.

Kane looked through the massive lens and saw more of the desert and the sky, but everyt h ing was saturated in an air turned charcoal: the sand was black, the sky was an onyx slate, and the birds were twisted, like scars. Soiled wind howled from within the arch and blast ed shards of razored darkness onto the pale sand.

Kane’s eyes were lost in th at vision. He knew he stared into another world.

Moments after the gateway appeared it exploded, and fell back to the desert floor. Only a wide circle of charred ash remained.

“Jesus…” Kane breathed. “PLEASE tell me I wasn’t the only one who saw that!”

“What the hell?” Ronan breathed. Sol looked like he’d seen a ghost, and Maur was visibly shaken.

“Jade?” he asked.

Jade shook all over. She held herself as st ill as she could. Kane took her shoulder in his hand, and he almost jumped at how cold she was.

“Jade?” he repeated. “ Y ou okay?”

“I’m sorry,” she breathed. She s ounded exhausted and terrified. Kane tried to steady her. “I’m not sure how that happened…”

“How what happened?” Kane asked.