Nephilius - A Walker Saga Book 5 (2 page)

When they reached the junction of the ten
lands, Galern turned to the left and they were over the Isle of
Souls. Delane never fatigued, but she knew the other Angelica would
be tiring. They would have to land.

She heard the screams long before she saw
them.

The souls were no more than colored mists
floating around the cloud mass, somehow contained, unable to move
on to rebirth. Galern descended and she followed. The souls wrapped
around them, but couldn’t do anything to physically interact.

Delane’s two hearts started to pump harder.
There was so much sorrow here that her body was reacting. Usually
she kept a tight control on her emotions and physical functions,
but it was going to be increasingly difficult the longer they
stayed on the isle.

“How large is this land? How many souls do
we estimate are here?” Delane’s voice was low, tremors of her
emotions lacing the words.

Galern
looked at her with some concern, never having seen her react in
th
is manner before. “This is the largest
of the ten lands. We believe that’s why the entity that cursed us
chose here.” A black shadow darted between them. “In that time
there’ve been a few hundred deaths amongst the Angelica flocks. And
a few beast deaths from Stormhaven.”

The beasts were distinct amongst the souls.
They were the black and red mists.

“It’s strange that the beasts are also
trapped here. I didn’t even know they had soul energy.” Delane
shook her head, her short black hair flying around her face.

The Isle of Souls would be massive if it was
the largest of the ten. The black flock only numbered in the
thousands, and they lived on a land area of millions of miles. They
used all of the space for training and flying.

“Everything has soul energy, some is small,
others larger, but one must never underestimate the importance of
even the smallest creature. The great circle is vital.”

Delane often received these speeches. She
was young for an Angelica, only fifty years, and the elders lived
to impart their wisdom.

Ignoring
Galern for the moment, she closed her eyes and expanded her energy
from her body. The rush of air energy fled from her like the tides
of a body of water, and as she started to expand she hit the
barrier encasing the Isle of Souls. Each of the ten lands was
separated by an abyss. Vast and
endless
pits that fell to somewhere at the center of Nephilius, and this
was where the cage holding the souls was coming from.

“There’s a barrier,” she said out loud.
“It’s formed from dark and light energy, but it’s not from an
Angelica.”

“How can you tell?”

Her eyes flew open at the gruff nature of
Galern’s voice. “Because the five flocks each have a distinct
energy pattern, and it’s slightly altered for each individual. But
I can always tell what flock an Angelica is from, even before I see
the wing color.” And she always knew which flock the young would
end up belonging to, even before they grew their wings.

“
Have you
ever felt energy like this before?” Galern brought his arms and
wings closer into his body as
some black
souls swirled around.

“It’s similar to the energy of the shadow
beasts on Stormhaven. Could it be connected?”

Galern pushed back the free strands of his
wild, white hair. “Our last lot of Gaa – black wings – that came
back from their battles said that the landscape was much more
dangerous than they’d been led to believe. Do you think things may
have changed there also?”

Delane worried at her lip. She hadn’t been
to Stormhaven for a long time. “It very well could be different.
The only ones to go there are the newly matured Angelica, and they
have nothing to compare it to. We must go at once.”

“You don’t sense a way for us to break this
barrier?” Galern asked as they spread their wings in preparation
for flight.

“The energy sustaining it comes from deep
within the abysses between our lands. I’ve never found any Angelica
who could tell me what exists down there. Do you know?”

Galern shook his head. “Any that have
ventured or fallen between have never been heard from again. We’re
taught to accept the endlessness that exists and never step foot
into the abyss.”

Delane sighed. Typical of the Angelica: they
just took everything on faith, caring more for who could swing a
sword the fastest, or best another in battle. Anything else was
unimportant to them.

Their wings
sent out swirls of misty air as they pumped and took flight
again. Galern had recharged his energy expended
during the last journey and would have no trouble making the
distance to Stormhaven.

Angelica became rejuvenated by planting
their bare feet onto the cloud masses. Energy would trickle into
their bodies to sustain them. This was why, despite the armor they
wore, they never covered the soles of their feet. This method still
worked for Delane, but she just tired out less frequently than the
average fifty-year-old on Nephilius.

Stormhaven was the only land mass to have
black rather than white clouds. The beasts had been there for as
long as Delane could remember, but there were some living Angelica
who recalled the day the whole world turned black.

It was never dark on Nephilius, but for one
seemingly endless moment a shadow had descended over the lands, and
then Stormhaven was born. Before that moment none other than
Angelica had existed on Nephilius, but now there were the beasts:
large fire-breathing, shadow-dwelling creatures. They were able to
transform between both physical and mist. They could not be hurt
when they were in their translucent form, but in their physical
form they could be killed. Though it was damn hard. Delane had
killed three when she’d come to maturity, and that was a record.
Only a very few Angelica had even managed to harm one. Going to
Stormhaven was more about bravery and survival.

The white swirling mists slowly changed to
gray and then black tendrils as they neared the junction that would
take them across to Stormhaven. Delane’s advanced hearing picked up
the screeching howls; she had her weapons unsheathed and in her
hands before they landed.

The air was clear even on the ground here,
and littering the land were large, unnaturally formed cloud
structures. The shadow beasts used these to their advantage, lying
in wait for the unsuspecting Angelica.

“You must hurry, Delane. We cannot linger
here for long.” Galern also held his weapons, a set of spiked-ended
clubs. He was swinging them around in random arcs, keeping his
reflexes honed for a sudden attack.

“
Yes, the
same energy is here now too. Stronger than it ever was.” Delane
started to
run, her strides
long.

She could move across the land fast enough
to be a blur to the casual observer. Galern took to the air above
her. Delane was following the pull and again it led her to one of
the cloud edges, the abyss falling away below.

Peering down, Delane could see nothing, just
the black clouds fading out to the white mists, which was all that
was visible in the gaps between the ten lands. The abysses
separating the lands were large, about a mile across, and as far as
anyone knew, endless miles down. Delane would be liar if she said
she’d never thought of flying down there. But something held her
back.

A soft thud indicated that Galern was beside
her again.

“It’s from the abyss again,” she huffed. “If
these foreigners do not solve our problem, I might have to go down
there.”

“Lane!” he gasped. “That’s suicide.”

“It could mean death to our entire world if
we don’t free the souls. What choice do I have?”

A noise had them both spinning around.

Coming at
them from all sides were shadow beasts. They shimmered in shades of
black, gray and white. Some of them were small, others huge, and
there were at least ten in total. That in itself was unusual;
Delane had never
known them to hunt in
packs.

“Want to try our luck?” She grinned at
Galern, who shook his head as they both took to the air, expertly
sheathing their unused weapons in the first few flaps.

Luckily no shadow beast could fly. The
prowling, snarling creatures let out shrieks as their prey moved
out of reach. Blasts of heat followed them as fire spewed from the
larger ones, but the Angelica were too fast in the air.

They powered
along in silence, Delane wracking her brain to figure out what
could be causing the prob
lem on the Isle
of Souls and most probably the existence of the shadow beasts. It
was the same energy, and it was not natural.

They arrived
back on the tournament lands just in time for long-sword training.
Delane left Galern at the mist-dwelling. He woul
d let the black council members know about their findings.
She strode across to the center of the field. With her energy she
manifested a broad sword from the mists. It took a few moments for
it to solidify and turn a steel gray.

“
Ready to
fight?” Jesile stood with a few of the
purple flock, her half-grin shooting toward Delane, her
spiky orange hair standing up around her delicate
features.

Delane swung her sword a few times. “I was
born ready. Let’s rumble.”

She pushed thoughts of the Isle of Souls,
Stormhaven and the mysterious Walkers from her mind. It was time to
battle. She let a grin cross her face as the other flocks stepped
up. This was going to be an all-in brawl. The five colors were
preparing for the tournament and they weren’t going to be taking it
easy on anyone.

This was going to be painful, for everyone
but Delane.

All I could taste and smell was the briny,
damp sand. For the tenth time in as many minutes, I found myself
face down on the beach. I was getting my ass kicked in the worst
kind of way; there was no doubt any longer: my fight training had
turned into fight torture.

“You going to rest there all day?”

Josian, my personal torturer and father, was
standing over me. His massive seven-foot frame blocked the
sunlight; we were in front of our house in Angelisian. This was day
eight of my training for the tournament on Nephilius, the next
planet I was heading to. It was time to find the fifth
half-Walker.

Grantham had sussed out the warrior planet.
He assured me that the best chance of finding the female was to
enter their annual tournament. Apparently, strangers were not very
welcome on Nephilius, so I only had this one opportunity. But it
was starting to look like we needed a new plan.

“I give up,” I said, rolling over onto my
back, my hands lifting to brush free the sand that had accumulated
on my face and hair.

Exhaustion
wracked me as I stared up into the indigo of the sky. It was a
perfect day, not one cloud marring my view. I really shouldn’t feel
so old and tired. I was only eighteen and not to mention a Walker.
Well, a half-Walker anyway, but still powerful enough to be one of
the seven females who might be able to save the worlds from the
Seventine. But ever since I’d broken my bond with Brace – damn, it
had been almost two weeks ago now – I’d describe my condition as
weary. I kept blaming it on the fact that my heart hurt, breathing
hurt, speaking hurt
, and just generally
existing without my soul mate hurt.

“
I thought
breaking the melding bond was supposed to increase my strength,” I
said without inflection, still staring up at the sky. “Lucy’s
vision isn
’t really working out the way I
thought it would.”

Josian dropped down beside me, knocking the
breath out of me as his huge frame collided with my side. “It will
take time for you to adjust to this loss. And you’ll never feel
right without Brace. Hopefully, though, functioning will get a
little easier.”

Josian and
Lucy were the only ones I could talk to about this. No one else
even remembered that I’d had a mate. Thanks to my father’s
laluna
s, the only beings powerful enough
to break an ancient melding bond. And to make matters worse I had
no idea what I was going to owe them; they worked on favor for
favor. I wasn’t really looking forward to finding out what they
wanted; the crazy little creatures weren’t exactly known for sane,
rational conversations.

I wiggled against the sharp muscle aches
running along my back. “At this rate I’m not going to be much use
in the tournament. We need a backup plan.” I voiced what we were
both thinking.

Nephilius was a warrior planet and I was
starting to see that no amount of training was going to get me to a
competitive level. Especially if I couldn’t use my energy.

“I’ll have to find someone else to compete,”
Josian said. “We need a legitimate reason why you’re on their
world. They don’t like strangers just stopping by.”

A familiarly shaped shadow crossed over
Josian and me.

“What about Colt?”

I tilted my
head bac
kwards to see Lucy standing above
us. She looked lovely, her blond hair gently curled and falling
around her doll-like features. Her big blue eyes were sparkling
with happiness, and I knew this was about Colton. The wolf-shifting
Walker was her mate, and they’d just recently done the big love
declaration.

“He’s as warrior as we’ll get, and since
he’s pretty determined to follow me around, it’s the perfect
setup.”

“Doesn’t he have obligations? What about
Brace?” I pulled myself up to sit and face her.