Westhaven by Rowan Erlking (ebook audio reader .txt) 📖

whispered one of the housemaids. “What are you doing down here?”

Hanging his shoulders, Key turned around. “Please. My stomach is eating a hole in its side. Have some pity on me and let me at least have some bread.”

She snickered and took out the key to the kitchen. “I didn’t think a fishmonger was the type to eat at a fancy dinner party anyway. You barely touched your food.”

“Not without trying,” Key muttered.

The maid led him in and opened up the larder, taking out more than just bread. She fetched some cheese, cut it, and then toasted both over the coals of the cook fire all the while smiling at him. She made enough for three, setting a plate for him and eating some for herself, also putting out a tall mug of milk for him to drink.

“You don’t look like much of a fish monger,” she murmured, peering at him. “Your hands are a different kind of rough.”

Turning his hand over as he munched on his toast and cheese, he peered at the burn scars on his palms. It had been years since he really had looked at them. Lifting his head, he said to her, “That’s because I’m not a fishmonger. I’m a smithy. I work with iron.”

“Ooh!” Her eyes sparkled as she took hold of one of his hands, feeling it over with her fingers. Her hands were not as delicate as Sadena’s and certainly not as soft as Lanona’s, but they were serviceable and reminded him of his mother’s. “Then they are strong hands.”

It was Key’s turn to chuckle. He blushed, retracting his hand from her grip, or at least trying to. “You little tease. What are you after?”

Giggling, the maid’s eyes sparkled. “I saw my lady turning the charm on you, but you jumped like an inexperienced school boy. So I was wondering. Is it her age, or do you already have a girl you are pining for? You don’t seem to be pining any woman so….”

Key shook his head as well as his finger. “That is prying, and none of your business.”

Her face fell some. “So there is a girl. What’s her name?”

Feeling his face go red, Key stuffed his cheese toast into his mouth and chewed like mad.

“Oh, come on, you must be worried about her out there where the war is starting up,” she said.

Up until that moment, Key really hadn’t wanted to think about it, but in the back of his mind it had nagged at him. Lanona was a wizard, but like Sadena who had been shot in a battle long ago, she could be killed. In fact, she would be a target if the Sky Children discovered what she was. He felt a similar concern in regards for Soin. But with Lanona, repeatedly in the back of his mind, he could see her dying.

“I’m sorry,” the maid suddenly uttered, staring at his face that had creased with pain. “I hadn’t quite realized…. You want to go out there again. Don’t you?”

Key closed his eyes. “I need to stay where I’m needed. And Lanona would not forgive me if I went out to rescue her. She’d think I was…. She’s a Sundri woman, and she is proud. She doesn’t like it when I want her to stay somewhere safe. She hates it, actually. And I am needed here. I have just to trust that she can handle herself.”

“Are you crazy?” The maid just stared at him. “Every woman wants a man that can save her. It’s probably just an act so she can stay near you.”

But he shook his head.

“Not with her. She’s like Sadena. She won’t sit back when she can do something.” He then turned his eyes to the maid. “She’s also a wizard, and that is why I have to trust that she’ll be all right.”

*

“Alright, the next one.” The soldier called over to the line of lake men that had been gathered from the Kalsworth skirts out in the damp. These folk had been working as hired hands for the past few years. The soldiers drove them in front of one of the eyewitnesses from the Wingsley battle. He had them weed out all the tall ones with reddish brown hair, peering into their eyes to see if they looked intelligent at all. So far they only saw tired farmers with sunburned faces. However, the soldiers sorted out the tall ones anyway and put shackles on their ankles for shipping to the east for a final check.

“Next!”

Another tall one shuffled by. The soldiers inspected his face, not even attempting to take a peek at his thoughts. All the lake men thought the same. The hated every Sky Child and wished for their destruction. In a way, the soldiers felt it wise to just shoot them all. However, there was an undercurrent in these men’s minds that dared it, frightening the soldiers more. Instead the soldiers shoved the tall one to the group of possible candidates for Key and continued on with the tedious search.

The loud rumble of a military car charged down the muddy lane, the wheels skidding in the mud. Everyone looked up. Expecting relief from their task, the soldiers sighed, raising their eyes to the faces of the newcomers. But these were not dark faces of their comrades that greeted them. Paler human faces of men from the north stared back at them,. They had guns in their arms. One of the men stood up with reddish brown hair and lake garb. He had a grin so wide on his face.

“You looking for Key?” The man practically laughed at them. “Well you found him!”

And he opened fire on the soldiers, as did all the others in the stolen automobile. They killed several of the soldiers in the barrage then immediately drove off, veering around as their tires kicked up both mud and gravel off the country road. They plowed back down the way they had come.

The living Sky Children rose to their feet. The soldiers darted to their automobiles, jumped in, and gunned up the engines, starting after the humans in a chase that spat out a smoke trail behind them. The search was over. Now the chase was on, and all of them were eagerly intent to take that notorious fugitive alive for the reward that could set any man for life.

The lead car screeched, turning the corner. It almost tipped on its wheels. They could see the stolen vehicle ahead. The driver took dangerous turns, honking his horn to warn those in their path to get out of the way, tearing through puddles. The crowds dived to the right and left as they screeched over the cobblestone and into the Kalsworth town center. The soldiers plowed in after it. They aimed for the fleeing automobile’s tires, though they also tried to strike the driver.

The humans shot back, with victorious cackles.

Street vendors and shoppers screamed, leaping out of the way. Children, women, men, slaves, Sky Child and human scattered as the vehicles passed, looking on both parties that fired on one another.

Then, as if in on accident, the human auto drove straight onto the train tracks right before the station house. Suddenly, like the worst of disasters, they just stopped there as though their vehicle had unexpectedly broken down. However, as they leapt out, each splitting off in different directions, it was clear they had planned it all along. Each one escaped into the crowds on the damp street

But the soldiers were just looking for only one. The other humans did not matter. They only wanted Key.

The self-declared Key darted through the station traffic, jumping first into a ticket booth then out the other side. The station police raised his whistle to his lips and blew, calling out as the presumed Key shoved the ticket-master back.

The crowd scattered as the soldiers called for them to get down on the ground. Then they opened fire. But none of them hit the man, even as he dived out the doors and tore through the streets towards the inn district. It would lead him east and out of town again.

“Stop that man! It’s Key!” cried the police and the soldiers chasing him.

The constables blew their whistles, running after him. Four others got in his way, raising their guns as they blocked him.

‘Key’ drew out his pistol and opened fire, killing two. Then he tossed the pistol to the side and switched to his sword, drawing it out of leather scabbard at his hip with a swift and deadly motion. Like a dance, the lake man struck every Sky Child in his path; killing the two constables and maiming another police man before darting past them to escape.

However, someone else had fired, someone waiting for Key.

The bullet hit the human terrorist in the leg.

But like an incorrigible monster, the human limped on, ignoring the blood coursing down his leg. He rushed to the nearest running automobile to shove out its occupants at sword point.

The second crack of gunfire struck him in the shoulder, tossing him backward from the auto.

Howling, the lake man clenched his sword arm. The vehicle he had attempted to commandeer screeched away with its driver and passengers, getting to safety. But the man merely switched swords to his other hand. He let the blood flow as he searched for another vehicle or route out. But by this time the soldiers and police had caught up and surrounded him.

“Come on!” The savage shouted out to them with a mocking manner that was as barbaric as the look on his face. “Why don’t you just kill me?”

“Because you are meant to be alive, Key.” General Winstrong walked over from the inn where he had been watching his future captive. He looked the tall lake man up and down, his eyes taking in the man’s reddish hair as well as the human’s young face. He matched Key’s description perfectly. Only this man’s eyes did not seem to have that needed look of craftiness he had expected Key to carry. The man’s eyes only held the intensity of his hatred for all things Sky Child.

Cackling, the infamous ‘Key’ staggered back. “General Gole. I’ve been meaning to do this a long time.”

The lake man then lunged forward with every effort to stab the elderly man in the heart. Gailert tried to dodge, pulling out his own pistol to shoot the human in the knees, but he was not fast enough.

Another crack of a gun split the air.

Gailert saw the human halt. His sword point was just inches away from him. The human’s eyes widened. The man collapsed to his knees. Blood dribbled from his mouth, dripping down his front. Below, an oozing wound bled out of his stomach.

Dropping his sword, the man panted, clenching oozing wound with a strange laugh.

“You fool!” Gailert drew his gun and pointed it at the soldier he assumed had shot the man. “We needed him alive!”

The soldier, going ashen, merely shrugged, backing off and slipping away. As he retreated, the other soldiers leapt in, taking the wounded man up.

“Can we stop the blood?” “Do you think we can save him?”

Casting a look at the general, they all scrambled to do what they could to save their intended captive. However with a gaping wound like that, it was unlikely the human would survive. And Gailert just stared at him, shivering at again another loss.

This was the death of the infamous Key, the mastermind behind the human armies. And though it would wound the humans a great deal to lose such a man, the look in the human’s eyes said he had no regrets. That confidence was terrifying considering that the war was still building.

But it was strange. Key had sacrificed himself for his fellow lake men. Crouching down and staring at his dying face, Gailert wondered what that mad genius was thinking.

The man spat blood into his face.

Gailert pulled back, grabbing for his handkerchief. As he wiped his face off, Gailert resisted the urge