Crown of Ash (Blood Skies, Book 4) (34 page)

“Did you hit your head or something?” Ronan asked him.
Kane realized
that
no one aside from
he and
the Grey Clan c
ould hear the
entire
conversation.

“That’s what Greyface over there said…”

Raal
, the voice corrected.

“Ok…sorry…wait
,
which one
are
you?”

The shorter, more human Grey Clan stood up. 

My companion is Mourne.

“Figures.”

“Mike
…
who the hell are you talking to?” Ronan asked him.

“Them.”

Ronan and Maur looked at the two Grey Clan, who menacingly looked back.

“Maur thinks Kane is
crazy
,” Maur said.

“You’re probably right, B
ro,” Kane said.  “So
there’s
an entrance to the Whisperlands
in your
territory
…I’m guessing
it’s
near tho
se temple ruins where the Ebon C
ities
bushwhacked
us, right?  W
ait
…not to sound like a moron, but
what the hell
are
the Whisperlands?”

“
One thing at a time
,” Burke said.  He sounded genuinely exasperated.  “Let us explain.”

Kane shrugged.  Jade, Ronan,
Sol
and Maur
all sat down
.

“The Whisperlands,” Turner explained, “is a transitional realm.  The Black reconstructed reality, but not all of the changes – the shifting of creatures or locales, the re
-
fusi
ng
of spatial and temporal zones
– was complete
d
.  Some of it’
s still going
on
.  Some of it outright failed. 
Some
things
that didn’t complete the transition between worlds
still
exist
in
exile in
the Whisperlands.

“
The realm is finite, but
it’s
lar
ger than one might expect.  It’
s also
just
a shade of the worlds that have passed through it.  Over time, any living creatures, structures,
and
even
natural
landscape
s
lo
o
se most of their original qualities a
nd
dissolve into darkness-infused version
s
of themselves.  The land is literally drowning in
shadow
. 
It
saturate
s
everything.”

“This is exciting,”
Sol
said.  “When does this fairy tale start to make sense?”

“Open your mouth again, and I
’ll
shut it for you,”
Marcus
said.

“Pretty boy, you couldn’t shut a toilet seat cover…”

“Dude, shut up!” Kane yelled.  “I’m listening here!”

“
There’s been a recent development
.
”
Turner
kept talking
as if nobody had spoke
n
.  Kane decided he liked her
, even if he only
understood about half of what she was saying. 
“
A group of m
ages ha
s
discovered the means to
enter
the Whisperlands.”

“What?” Jade asked.  “How?”

“It helps to
not
be a mage,” Burke interjected.  “Though a warlock or witch can better acclimate to the dark environ, they have
a
more difficult
time
pulling away if they ever intend to leave.”

“That’s why you didn’t send Jade with us,” Kane said.  “Why not Maur?”

“Gol are arcane creatures,” Maur said.  “
They do
not have spirits, but
their
bodies are powered by magic.”

“Exactly,” Burke nodded.

“And why did you send us there in the first place?” Ronan asked angrily.  “We nearly died destroying that Ebon Cities murder
squad and their little
hidey hole.”

“There are ways to navigate the Whisperlands, if the right preparations are made,” Turner said
matter-of-factly.  “Because it’
s a liminal zone
with its own spatial rules, it
’
s conceivable
that
one can travel great distances in
our
world without having to travel great distances
there
.  More important
ly
, the Whisperlands can be used to reach areas that are totally inaccessible
on our side
.”

“A shortcut,” Jade said.

“Like the portal we used to save Cross,” Ronan said.  “Only not.  Because travel through that gate was instantaneous.”

“Right,” Turner said.  “
Using the Whisperlands as a shortcut is
less direct, but just as effective, provided you can survive the Whisperlands
themselves
.”

“Ok, ok, hold on,” Kane said.  His brain ached.  For some reason he was incredibly thirsty, and his gums
hurt
like he’d stabbed them with something.  “A few things.  One, what the hell
is
that
temple
thing
we saw in the desert?  Two,
why did you have us
destroy that outpost?  Three, what does this have to do with Cross?  Four, how are we going to get him and Dani out of Black Scar?”

The
temple
you saw was a remnant of our home world,
Raal said
into Kane’s mind
.  He looked around and saw surprise
d looks on everyone else’s faces
, which meant for once the
Grey Cla
n
communicat
ed
with
all of
them, not just
him
. 
Our kings were barbarous beasts who worshipped creatures of the great deep.  They sacrificed our people by the score.  For many of us, the event that you call The Black was a blessing.  It saved us. 
The temple of Mek’ta
a
r
had been an unholy and terrible place
.  Its hold over us is gone, but so much magic o
nce saturated its walls that it
s power has not entirely died.

“
The temple is a zone of t
emporal instability,” Turner explained.  “That’s how we managed to identify it as a
breach
into the Whisperlands.”

“
When we learned of this
Temple
of Mek’taar, we contacted the Grey Clan
,” Burke said
. 
“
In return for providing them with good weapons to keep themselves safe from both sides of the war, they agreed to help us navigate into the realm.”

“And I take it the Ebon Cities beat you to it?”

“That outpost you destroyed was a reconnaissance tower,” Turner said.  “They
actually
plan to encroach
at
another point,
because
only a small number of
creatures can pass through the Mek’taar portal at a time
.  Still, t
hey were able to squeeze a recon patrol through, and they set up
a watch
post
to scope out the area.”

“Why did you send
us
in?” Kane asked
Burke angrily.  “You ass.
”

“Because it needed to be done,” Burke said.  “I wasn’t going to ask the Grey Clan to risk themselves, and I certainly wasn’t going to send
in
Turner or
Marcus
.”

“So you dumped
us
in there?” Ronan growled. 

“Yes,” Burke said flatly.  “And you survived.  And while I can understand how that might
not
make you feel
all that happy with me
, frankly I don’t care.  Because i
f you want to save your friends
you’ll need my help.”

Ronan bit his lip, but quieted.  Kane
shook his head
. 

“So what do they want?” Jade asked.  “Why are both Koth and the Ebon Cities trying so hard to get in there?  And why are
T
he Revengers interested?”

“Honestly…I don’t know,” Burke said.  “That was between Rake and the Grand Vizier of Koth.  I do know, however, that the plan involves using Cross.”

“Why do they need Cross?” Ronan asked.

“Because you may have his body, but you don’t have his mind,” Turner explained.  “He’s trapped in the Whisperlands.  And both Koth and the Ebon Cities seem to think he knows exactly how to find what they’re looking for.”

“Why haven’t you made contact with your people?” Ronan asked Burke.

“We tried,” Turner answered.  “But they’re rapidly approaching the final stages of their plans, so Black Scar is in full lockdown.  No communication in or out.  We literally have no way to reach them.”

“The best we can do now,” Burke said, “is to get to the portal to the Whisperlands before they do, expose the Ebon Cities spies, and stop them.  If you manage to rescue Cross and Danica in the process…so be it.  I’ll help you so far in that I’ll look the other way.  We’ll consider it payment for services rendered.”  He smiled.  “Any questions?”

“On a scale of one to ten, how screwed do you we think we all are?” Kane asked him.

“You don’t want to know…”

They laid their
rescue
plans.  Burke and his aides knew where
T
he Revengers and the Kothian forces planned to breach the Whisperlands: the ruins of
Voth Ra’morg
,
once
a city-state
that had
been
occupied by
survivors
and desert hunters
but
that had
later
been sacked by Vuul raiders
and left abandoned
.  Now there was little left
except
a hollow shell, but there was
also
a
means
to enter
the Whisperlands
hidden somewhere beneath an old industrial tower right in the middle of
the city
. 
Chances were better than not that the Ebon Cities would try to use the same access point
. 

Crap
,
Kane thought
.
T
his is too much.

After over an hour of planning, Kane had to step away.  His muscles ached from
standing hunched
over maps and diagrams of the area, and he was
completely
on edge.  It didn’t matter that they had a temporary truce: he didn’t trust Burke and his
crew
any more than he could throw them, and he still had no reason to believe much of anything
that
Jade or
Sol
said
,
either. 

He
walked to the edge of the room
and looked out
through
a sealed and dingy window.  The gelatinous air
the Grey Clan
breathe
d back o
n their home world
was thick outside
. 
D
ebris drift
ed
through the murk. 
Reptilians moved s
heets of metal
and
tossed
them
into piles
or
placed
them
in the backs of heavy carts. 

“Did Burke tell you what they do here?” Ronan asked.  The swordsman had snuck up on him.  He looked as exhausted as Kane felt. 

“Yeah.  They’re making ships and weapons.”

“Makes sense,” Ronan nodded.  “The Ebon Cities have been pushing deeper into their territory.  We saw some of what they’d done to these people
on that ship full of wounded
.”