Shadow Heart (29 page)

“And who is ‘we’? What is the Homestead?”

“Best if you don’t ask such questions,” Grantoro replied. “The fact that you know so little is the only reason you are being allowed to leave. And even then, it was a fight. Come. I will lead you the rest of the way out of the forest.”

He tugged on the horse's reins and trudged off to the north, giving them little choice but to follow.

“What about our supplies?” Liz asked. “You took or destroyed everything we had at the cave.”

“You won’t be needing any of that,” Grantoro called over his shoulder. “We have provided all you will need for the journey, including better sidearms and packs of ammunition.”

Grace looked at her again and shrugged, then jogged to catch up with the man and horse. Liz came up beside her a moment later, “Who are these people?”

“I don’t know,” Grace whispered. “But I really do think he means to help us. They seem to hate the World System as much as we—er, I—do.”

“I’m no fan of the System, either,” she said. “Or Sullivan, for that matter. He may be the lesser of the two evils, but he will soon match pace. The amount of destruction he is willing to unleash…I couldn’t stomach it, and for that he tried to have me killed.”

“He unleashed Hell and fury upon Rio,” Grantoro said, startling them both. Grace had thought they were out of earshot, but she had underestimated the skill of the Wilderness hunter. When a man’s ears were so attuned to the sounds of the wild, a human voice must not be difficult to discern.

“So it's true, then: the city has fallen?” Liz asked.

“The Conglomerate sacked the city several days ago now, but only after they blew an entire sector of it away with their new Solithium weapons. Estimates are that almost a hundred thousand people perished in that initial strike, and many thousands more in the battle that followed.”

“And Lima?” Liz nearly tripped as she struggled to come up alongside their host, her anxiety plain.

“The Great Army at Lima surrendered without a fight,” Grantoro replied. “Officers that resisted were put to the sword by their own men. The rest went over to Sullivan.”

Grace shook her head in disbelief, “How do you know all this?” She had heard rumors of the Imperial Conglomerate’s advance, but nothing so detailed as this.

“We’re not as isolated here as you might think,” Grantoro said. “A conversation for another day, perhaps. We are nearing the edge of the forest. If you follow my earlier instructions, your path should take you beyond the borders of old Tennessee, up through Kentucky and then to the Corridor. Most of the bridges on the rivers in this region are still intact, though I recommend caution. They have not been repaired in over two decades.”

“What makes you think we are headed for the Corridor?” Grace asked.

“Silent Thunder rarely ventures as far west as they are now,” Grantoro said. “You lead a party of almost two hundred of the world’s best warriors on a trajectory straight for Corridor Prime. Do you mean to enter the city?”

I will do more than enter it, if I have my way
. The words hung on the tip of her tongue, but she said nothing, hoping to let the question die on the wind. So far Grantoro had proven himself a friend, but that did not mean he could be trusted with the details of her strategy.

Liz watched her out of the corner of her eye, obviously trying to hide her concern. She could not have guessed until now where Silent Thunder was headed. Would that change whether she wanted to continue on with her? Or was this exactly what she had been waiting for: a chance to predict the rebellion’s next movements and report back to her superiors?

“If that is your intention,” Grantoro said after the awkward silence. “You should know that you will find no underground passages as you did in Alexandria. There are only two ways into the city: to somehow circumvent the Solithium barrier, which you do not have the technology to do, or in the hands of Great Army soldiers. Either way is a fool’s errand.”

“Thank you for the advice,” Grace replied in a measured tone. “Should we attempt it, I will keep that in mind.” Crenshaw had assured her that he could get a small team inside the city, but had neglected to say how. Hopefully his was a third way, unknown even to this surprisingly well-informed wanderer.

Within a few moments Grantoro brought them to a stop. They had reached the edge of the forest. He turned and handed Barley’s reins to her, then patted the animal gently on the head. “Treat him well, Commander. He has always been a good stout horse.”

“I will, sir,” she said with a slight nod of her head. “Thank you, for everything. Perhaps one day I will return the favor.”

“Oh, I doubt we’ll be seeing one another again,” he grinned. “But then again, it is a crazy world we live in. You never know.” His grin faded and he leaned in close, overwhelming her in the sudden smells of the wind and trees. “Keep a careful eye on that one, though.” He jerked his head toward Liz, who stood waiting a few paces away. “No one can yet guess what her part in this tale will be. So young to have changed her cloak so many times.”

Grace’s eyes widened. She should have guessed that if they had recognized her, they would recognize Liz as well. “Like you said, it’s a crazy world right now.” The argument was weak, but Grace could think of nothing better to say. She wanted to defend Liz, to stand up for the woman who had saved her back in the camp. Neither of them would be alive now if not for the actions of the other, but there was still that nagging possibility that the woman Grace had seen in the last few days was a facade, and her true nature had yet to reveal itself. Still, she couldn’t help but feel guilty at her own suspicions.

Grantoro nodded, “Just make sure that when her cloak changes again, it isn’t to a color you don’t like.” At that moment Liz came up beside them and he pulled back. Grace held the reins as he helped Liz get up on the horse. She tried to hide her pain, but Grace saw her wince as she exerted herself. It would be days yet before her wounds were fully healed.

He helped Grace up next, a bit more challenging with her cast, but she swung up with her good leg and used Grantoro for leverage. It was less graceful than she would have liked, but the important thing was that she made it. She sat in front on the massive animal, and the horse barely seemed to notice the weight of two women on his back.

Liz held on to her lightly, and she raised the reins. Grantoro stepped back, already beginning to vanish into the shadows of the trees, “Remember. North, at least until you camp at sunset, then northwest to your people. And there is something else you should know, the both of you. It will not be easy for you to hear.”

Grace heard the foreboding in his voice, a mood only amplified among the skeletal forest, “Tell me.”

“The force you sent north has been destroyed,” Grantoro said. “Overtaken, by Persians. The Great Army is no longer the only threat that wanders the Wilderness…nor the worst.”

Grace’s stomach clenched with both grief and fear. Grief, for Commander Aiken and his men, yet another loss in the long string of tragedies since her failure at Alexandria. But in that moment the fear took center stage, like the terror of a child who learns that her nightmares are real after all.

She had grown up on stories of the Persians, tales of dark armies and evil men who had devoured the peaceful world in their greed. They were like phantoms to her…the monsters under her bed.

But now they were here, on this continent.

“How far…?” Grace’s voice trailed off as she focused again on the trees. Grantoro was gone.

After a moment of eerie silence, Liz whispered in her ear, as breathless as Grace felt, “Why would there be Persians here? I thought Alexander wiped them out more than a decade ago.”

Liz wanted to believe it, and Grace honestly did, too. But she could not blind herself to reality, no matter how dark or terrifying. “We did send a team north. If he was right about that, he is probably right about this as well. Come on,” she tugged on the reins and urged Barley north. “We have a long road ahead.”

D
EREK
B
LAINE STEPPED OFF
the Halo, struck by just how much this part of the Wilderness looked like the part he had left behind. The details might be different, but in general it was all the same: trees here, rock there, tall grass that could hide any amount of dangerous wildlife, and then—of course—the quiet. Like the calm before a storm that never came.

The sight of the Corridor looming on the Western horizon was the most promising thing he had seen in days. Civilization. Order. This was the longest he had spent away from the cities in his entire life, and he would not be sorry to see it end...so long as it ended the way he planned.

His three companions emerged from the Halo behind him, each walking a little taller than they had the day before. After his conversation with Specter Captain Gentry, Derek had decided to expand the experiment to the others as well. He was astonished with his success, so much that it made him regret not being able to learn more from Admiral McCall. Traitor though he was, he knew people. Derek had only shown a passing interest in the lives of these men as they waited for the Halo to pick them up, but it had been enough. They were loyal to him in a way they hadn’t been before, and would follow him out of pride instead of fear.

But for Gentry it went even beyond that. Since their time in the forest he could sense a respect from the Specter Captain unlike any he'd ever had from a subordinate before. It wasn’t difficult to explain. No commanding officer
ever
showed interest in his subordinates. They were tools to be used without consideration. Derek had shown that he was different than that. That he could be trusted. That he wasn’t just entitled to obedience, but deserved to be followed.

Gentry came up beside him, almost protective as Specter General Marcus came forward with an entourage to meet them.
Good
, Derek thought.
He knows Marcus is not to be trusted
.

“Grand Admiral,” Marcus said with a childish grin. “We were told to be expecting you back.”

Derek would have loved nothing more in that moment to kick the man’s teeth in. He had expected Napoleon Alexander’s orders had gone ahead of him and had been prepared for it, but Marcus acted as though the MWR’s threat on Derek’s life was a foregone conclusion.

“And I’m sure you’re just leaping for joy inside,” Derek said sarcastically. “Tell me about the chase.” He walked forward and motioned for Gentry to follow. As the Specter Captain was already on Derek’s right, Marcus had to scramble around them and then jog a bit to catch up. It was a small feat of revenge, but seeing the man so awkward almost brightened Derek’s mood.

“We have harried them west, just as you ordered,” Marcus replied. “Skirmishes only, as often as we had the upper hand. Now that we are within sight of the Corridor’s defense shield, they have turned north toward the walls of Prime. I don’t know what they plan to do once they get there. There’s no getting past the Solithium fence.”

“You might actually be surprised by that,” Derek said, nodding slightly toward his companion. “Specter Captain Gentry here tells me there might be a way in.”

Marcus glared at the man as if seeing him for the first time, “Is that so? And how could he possibly know that?”

“The Specter Captain grew up in Corridor Prime and was trained there. Perhaps he should tell you. Go ahead, Gentry.”

“Yes, sir,” Gentry replied. “My father worked a farm near the docks, Specter General, in the shadow of a Solithium shield generator. I would go out with him sometimes, and during breaks would take a swim in the river. One time I noticed a big hole in the shield where it passed underwater, but at the time I didn’t think anything of it. During soldier training, I remembered that day and went back, but there was no hole.”

“So you imagined it,” Marcus snapped. “Just because you think you saw it doesn’t mean it was actually there.”

“I would agree, sir,” Gentry said. “Except that just two years ago, while I was training in underwater maneuvers with the Fortieth Army of the Corridor, I saw the hole again. Only this time it was miles from where I had seen it before, and on the other side of the river. I led a squad through the hole and we came out on the bank...
outside
the city. By the time we decided to go back in, the hole had closed.”

“Why wouldn’t you have reported this?”

“I did, Specter General,” Gentry replied. “But my commanding officer didn’t believe us. He thought we invented the lie to cover a night of drunken stupor that landed us outside the city walls.”

“And perhaps he was right,” Marcus said. “In any case, I don’t see how this means anything. Holes that appear at random? What good will that do Silent Thunder?”

Derek sighed, exasperated, “What it
means
is that under certain conditions, water can disrupt a Solithium shield. One would only need to know the cause of that disruption, and they could recreate it anywhere they wished.”

“You think Silent Thunder has this knowledge?”

“Probably not,” Derek conceded. “Not unless they have someone with them who is experienced with Solithium shields and water, as Specter Captain Gentry is. However, it proves there are tricks we do not know about. If we were blind to this, what other ways are there into the city? Silent Thunder managed to get into Alexandria itself through underground tunnels we thought closed. We should not assume they will be trapped on this side of the river.”