Secrets of the Valley Page 2

  “Wake up, all of you!” I shouted.

  Nash surged upright and grabbed his crossbow, thinking we might be under attack.

  Hagan wiped his bleary eyes and gave me an accusing stare. “What’s going on?”

  Haldar sat up without a word and glanced back and forth between Kaelem and me.

  “We’re moving on,” Kaelem explained to his brothers, shouldering his pack. “The sooner we get to the compound the better.”

  I snorted. Just moments ago, Kaelem was ready to let his brothers sleep for another few hours. The thought of Wolfe and the vile things he was capable of must have been enough to change Kaelem’s mind.

  The brothers rolled up their blankets and stowed them away in their packs while Kaelem kicked dirt on the fire to douse it.

  “Aren’t you worried about us losing our way in the dark?” Hagan complained. “The moon’s not that bright tonight. It will be easy to get disoriented.”

  Haldar nodded. “And it’s not wise to have torches lit at night. Howlers or Sabers will spot us if they’re nearby.”

  “We’ll head north toward Blackrock River,” I said, feeling for the daggers in my boots and the pistol at my waist. I shouldered the rifle I had been given by the Warriors. “We’ve been walking parallel to it the last two days. It will lead us in the right direction.”

  “Let’s get going then,” Nash said.

  Once I had determined which way was north, I led the brothers through the sequoias and thick shrubs. Meandering around the wide trunks in the dark did not allow us to move as quickly as I would have liked, but we couldn’t afford any injuries. I would heal, obviously, but the brothers would not. A sprained ankle, or worse, could set us back days.

  Twenty minutes passed. Were we still headed north? Where was the river?

  I kept putting one foot in front of the other, my eyes darting left and right. With every snap of a branch I expected to see a soldier or a Saber come leaping out of the shadows. Sweat began to trickle down my back and my heart started racing like it did in my nightmares. I wished Thorne were here. He could see clearly in the dark.

  Stop panicking, I thought, taking a deep breath. Kaelem would sense something out there and warn us. Wouldn’t he?

  I didn’t expect Kaelem to answer. He wouldn’t know which way to go any better than me in the dark of night, but he would surely tell us if there was a threat.

  Keep going for a few more minutes, I silently assured myself. We would know soon if I had led us in the wrong direction for I had felt certain Blackrock River was less than a mile away from where we had camped tonight.

  Kaelem, who had been walking behind his brothers, trotted up and fell into step beside me. “I don’t understand why you think you’ll get lost inside the compound. Didn’t you live there for a long time?”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. Kaelem had assured me that he could not listen in on my dreams. It was the memory of them upon waking that he caught glimpses of, but I still resented the intrusion. Not to mention that it was highly embarrassing to know he could hear my every thought about Thorne.

  “I really am sorry that I’m irritating you,” he said apologetically. “And don’t think for a moment that I enjoy listening in on your tender thoughts of that Warrior.”

  My face and neck heated up knowing the things that I had pondered the last two nights just before drifting off to sleep. I’d imagined Thorne’s calloused hands gently cupping my face and his warm lips on mine. I recalled the way his strong body moved when he was fighting. Even the three scars on his cheek from a battle with a Night Howler were ever present in my mind. No matter where I went, I wanted his memory close to me.

  “Can you stop thinking about Thorne?” Kaelem groaned. “Tell me why you think you will get lost. And why are you afraid of the dark soldier, the one you see in your dreams?”

  “That dark soldier is called Two,” I explained, pushing a tree branch out of my way as we walked. “He’s the General’s captain. I was the only soldier ranked above him.”

  Kaelem grabbed hold of some pine needles as we hiked and yanked them off the branch. He stuck one between his teeth and began chewing on it. “If you were ranked above him, then why are you afraid of him?”

  “He wasn’t ranked lower than me because he was an inferior fighter.” In the eight years I lived inside the compound I had trained hard to be the best, but Two had been just as determined to reach the top. He was stronger and more powerful than I would ever be.

  “Oh,” he mumbled. “He ranked you number one because of your ability.”

  I reached up and covered my tattoo with my fingers. Wolfe had marked me as TS1 when he had begun trying to brainwash me. All the General’s soldiers had their rank etched permanently on the back of their necks. I had been the General’s number one soldier; his finest weapon. Now the tattoo was just a grim reminder that I had been his test subject.

  I had grown up in Terran, an isolated village a mere mile from Wolfe’s compound. Once I’d turned nine years of age, I had been forced to run away from my parents and my twin sister, Camellia, and ended up living at the compound. My new home seemed to be the perfect place for me, but it soon turned into a prison. General Wolfe had discovered my gift: the ability to heal at a supernatural rate. I had fled the compound. It had been the only way to keep Wolfe from continuing his experiments and stealing my blood. For a little over a month, I had lived alone in the Old Sequoia Valley, hiding from Wolfe’s persistent soldiers, especially his captain, TS2.

  “The compound isn’t the confusing maze that I see in my nightmares,” I explained. “But I’m not familiar with every part of the place either. Wolfe was very secretive about certain areas. I wasn’t allowed to roam wherever I pleased.”

  “So they could be hiding Laelynn anywhere,” he stated. He shook his head. “Your nightmares certainly are strange.”

  Strange? They were downright terrifying most nights. Since the day I’d left Thorne wounded on the meadow, my nightmares had changed. My past, present, and future blended together, forming some equally frightening dreams. In the worst one yet, I had made it down that bright white hallway, burst into a room, and seen Thorne lying in a pool of his own blood. A Yellow-eyed Saber had been sitting calmly beside him, watching me, and licking the sticky red blood from its paws. I had woken up sobbing and barely made it to the bushes before retching.

  I would never forget that day. Thorne, gutted by one of those deadly Sabers and dying in the grass just a scant mile from his village. For one devastating moment, I was sure I was going to lose him. I could only hope my blood had made him better, not worse. It had been only two days ago, though it seemed like a lifetime.

  Pierce – one of Thorne’s Warriors – had urged me to flee before I knew whether his commander had lived or died. I’d realized then that Pierce knew all about the General and the dangers I’d bring to the clan. My one and only hope was that the Warriors’ loyalty was true and they had kept their word: to make certain their commander lived.

  Kaelem continued to chew on the pine needle as he walked beside me in silence, considering all that I had told him. I pushed on through the brush and around the trees until finally I heard the soft roar of fast-moving water. Picking up my pace, I jogged ahead until I broke through the last of the trees to stand at the edge of Blackrock River.

  I took a deep breath and shook out my sweaty hands.

  “Is this it?” Kaelem asked, catching up to me. The other brothers marched up to the banks on either side of Kaelem and me and stared down at the rushing river.

  The water was moving east toward the coast. It was the same river I had fallen into just a few days ago. Thorne and I had camped out in a cave near this very spot, I was certain of it.

  “Yes, this is the river,” I confirmed and started walking west.

  The four brothers followed on my heels, as they had been doing for the past two days of our journey. There had been a fifth brother, Raimond, but he’d been killed trying to prevent the soldiers from taking Laelynn. I couldn’t help but feel partly responsible for his death and for Laelynn’s capture. The fault did not rest solely on my shoulders, however. Kaelem had betrayed me to the soldiers and had told them that I was in their village. Laelynn had helped me escape, unaware of her brother’s treachery until too late. When they could not hand me over, they had taken Laelynn as bait to draw me in for an exchange.

  It was madness, this plan to try and break her out of the compound. There were a few sound ideas floating around in my head, but I could not shake my fear of that place. It shrouded my rational thoughts.

  Having heard what I had been thinking, Kaelem jogged up to walk beside me again.

  “What is it now?” I asked with a sigh.

  “I can’t help but hear the plans you’re trying to come up with and I want to help. We came to you, and we only want to do our part. We all understand how difficult ...”

  I snorted and shook my head at him. Difficult?

  “Impossible, then,” he corrected. “It will be near impossible to accomplish, but I’m willing to go to whatever ends to help Laelynn, as are my brothers. We are not helpless. We understand what’s at stake.”

  “I know you’re not helpless,” I conceded. “And, yes, I fear that place and the people within it more than anything. If you’ve seen my thoughts, you know what waits for me if I’m caught.”

  “That is why we must be careful. Is there no one on the inside who could help you?” Kaelem asked me, as he had done every day. He cocked his head to one side. “How did you get away the first time?”

  Staring blankly at the ground as we hiked through the trees that lined the river, I recalled that unexpected escape. It was the night of that final test General Wolfe had given his first round of recruits.

  We h
ad stood in a perfect line, all of us marked with a tattoo on our necks that identified us as his Test Subjects. TS2, or Two as he was called, had stood beside me, no longer the boy I had known during my early years at the compound. I feared facing him more than any other soldier. He was a ruthless killer now, listening and taking orders only from General Wolfe. He’d turned easily, just as the others had.

  I’d miraculously kept my mental faculties intact. My mind had healed from every brutal assault, just as my body had during the numerous beatings. It was the only reasonable explanation for why I was still in my right mind and the others were not.

  General Wolfe had ordered us to kill a group of hooded men. There had been no explanation for their execution. It was simply a test to make sure that each of us would take orders without question. But I’d refused … and paid the price. His punishments for me were always the cruelest form of torture. They hadn’t laid a hand on me, but after they were done forcing me to watch the mutilation and murder of all those men, my heart and soul was left in shreds. I’d been sent back to isolation, silent and horrified by what had been done that day.

  A few hours later, gentle hands had lifted me from my bed, placed me on a gurney, and covered me from head to toe with a white sheet.

  “Don’t move a muscle,” the man had hissed.

  He had wheeled me down a few hallways, up the elevator, past the guards and out into the night. When he finally stopped, we were well out of sight of the compound. After lifting me from the gurney, he shoved a rucksack of supplies into my hands and told me to run and never come back.

  “One of the General’s scientists?” Kaelem asked me, drawing me back to the present. His face had blanched again at the gruesome images he’d been able to see in my mind.

  I nodded. “He’d been assigned to get rid of the bodies of all those men. He managed to sneak me out the same way.” There had been no opportunity to speak with the man or ask why he would risk so much to rescue me from General Wolfe. I peered up at Kaelem and admitted, “I didn’t even know his name.”

  “What do you think happened to him?” Kaelem inquired.

  “He’s most likely dead for having helped me.”

  “But you don’t know for sure?”

  “No, I’m not positive,” I agreed. “It would depend on how much Wolfe values his scientists.”

  “It could be our way in if we were able to contact him.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “How am I going to do that?”

  He shrugged and stared off at the river as we marched.

  Tucking a stray hair behind my ear, I thought of sweet, innocent Laelynn in that place. Her warm, brown eyes twinkling when she smiled and her hand resting on my shoulder, welcoming me even though I’d been a stranger. She wasn’t the first person I had ever felt could be a true friend to me. When I’d lived at the compound, Kieron had been my truest friend, until he betrayed me. Then the General destroyed him.

  The longer we waited, the less certain I was that Laelynn would still be alive to rescue.

  “Don’t think that,” Kaelem hissed. “We must try.”

  Reluctantly, I nodded. “We’ll reach the compound in two more days if we move swiftly. Then we’ll begin.”

  Back to Map

  3

  Thorne

  Kemena was true to her word. Gunter snuck into the room half an hour later. What she had said about a scuffle must have been true, for his bottom lip was still swollen. His shaggy, honey-colored hair was lying perfectly in place across his forehead and around his ears. He had dressed in black from head to toe, not a speck of dirt on him. When he saw that I was awake, he closed his eyes and sighed in sheer relief. Once he had closed the door, he fell into the chair next to the bed.

  “I didn’t dare believe her,” Gunter whispered, reaching out to clasp my forearm in brotherly affection. “Kemena kept telling us that you would be fine, that sleeping was the best medicine, but …”

  “Kemena is usually right when it comes to healing. She has a gift.”

  I startled for a moment at my own comment. Kemena did seem very intuitive about medicines and injuries. There were times she had marched into the hospital ward, taken one look at the patient, and known exactly what was wrong and what had to be done. It made me wonder if this was yet another subtle gift among us, much like my gift of seeing clearly in the dark.

  “Thorne, what are you thinking about?”

  I turned back to Gunter. “Nothing. Just trying to remember what happened out there.” Then I narrowed my eyes. “What happened to you?”

  Gunter scraped his teeth over his mending split lip. “Pierce … as usual. He punched me and busted my lip wide open. He’s been sour since the hunt. I’m not sure what’s gotten into him. He even protested my help in carrying you here.”

  I did my best to hide my surprise at that information. What was Pierce playing at?

  “That’s not what I meant,” I clarified. “What happened to you out in the meadow? Why did you leave when the Sabers attacked? You are one of our best fighters and you fled. Why?”

  Gunter paled at my rebuke. “I’m as much to blame for this -” He gestured to my wounds. “- as those Sabers.” He rose from his seat and started pacing the room. “It was a split-second decision. I thought I was doing what you would have wanted me to do. Get the captives to safety and bring other Warriors out to help us. That was always what Commander Hawke taught us, wasn’t it? Keep the innocent ones safe?”

  He flung himself back into the chair and raked his fingers through his hair. It ruffled up for a bit and then relaxed back into place again. It was irritating that he always looked so put together, even with a busted lip.

  I was surprised Pierce hadn’t knocked any of Gunter’s teeth loose. Pierce punched harder than any Warrior I’d ever fought in the training ring. He had left me covered in bruises and a bloody nose when we had fought each other for the position of commander.

  “Look, if I’d known there were so many of them or that they would swarm so quickly, I would have stayed. I did try to convince Brock to take the cart back since he’d just recently been injured, but he refused to leave.”

  I held my hand up to halt his excuses. “Enough, friend. I believe you. And … I will speak to Pierce.”

  Gunter nodded, his grief plain to see in his green eyes.

  “Now, tell me,” I said, lowering my voice. “What happened to her?”

  “I … I don’t know,” he stammered, shaking his head.

  “She didn’t come back with the others?”

  “No,” he confirmed. “I tried to ask them what happened, but they would give me no clear answers. It was difficult to bring it up without announcing it in front of the Elders. And, of course, they are all anxious about your recovery. But even after …” Gunter’s voice trailed off and he shook his head again.

  “No one knows about her yet? Other than those of us on the hunt?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t said a word to anyone, but who knows what the other Warriors might have let slip.”

  I shrugged again, unconcerned. “Hopefully they’ve been discreet, but it doesn’t matter if people know. I’m sure my father will have heart failure when he finds out what I’ve done.”

  “Well, it doesn’t really make much difference now, does it? We’re back in Peton. It’s not like you can take off again with winter on the horizon.” Gunter frowned and furrowed his brow. “She might be long gone or dead now. It might be best if …”

  Before he could finish his remark, Tallon burst through the door, Kemena hot on her heels.

  “Thorne!” Tallon gasped and rushed to the bedside. Taking a seat on the edge of the bed, she clasped my hand in both of hers. It surprised me to find her eyes a bit misty. She was not one to show much emotion aside from anger. Tallon, like Kemena, resembled our father, with her reddish blonde hair and heart-shaped face. While my own eyes were almost a silver-blue, my sisters had eyes the color of a clear sky in spring. They were both smaller in build as well. Neither one was as tall as Ravyn and, while Kemena had a motherly demeanor, Tallon was tough and already a tenacious fighter.