The Rift War (The Liftsal Guardians Book 4) Read online

  Sloane wasn’t sure if she deserved the compliment; not when she couldn’t do anything to help Allirie recover. A good friend would be doing something to fix her, but instead, Sloane felt useless.

  She sat at Allirie’s bedside for over an hour, watching and hoping that she would wake up. Her skin still looked so pale and her breaths rattled in her chest as she wheezed in and out. She didn’t seem to be in a good way, and Sloane didn’t doubt any element of Orelle’s assessment. Allirie really was struggling to recover from her injuries.

  When she finally left Allirie’s room, Sloane went in search of Rhyn again. She was hoping that he was done meeting with his father, though knowing Vas they would be talking all night. She checked the usual places for him, before resigning herself to see if he was still in the throne room. She’d never been into the throne room before and had no intentions of barging in while Vas and Rhyn were deep in discussion. But she figured there would be no harm in checking with the guards to see if the two of them were finished.

  There were no guards outside the room tonight though, and the large wooden doors stood open. Sloane slowly made her way towards them, walking quietly and focusing on her hearing to see if she could catch sound of anyone talking within the room. It was silent though and there was no indication that either Rhyn or Vas were inside.

  She hesitated as she neared the doors. She wasn’t sure if she was allowed in the throne room, but there didn’t seem to be anyone around to stop her. All she wanted to do was to find Rhyn.

  She crept a few steps forwards and hazarded a look inside. There was no sign of anyone within, but her eyes widened as she admired the room before her. It was far bigger than Sloane had expected, and her gaze naturally drifted to the glowing ceiling above. The castellum itself was several storeys tall, but the roof of the throne room reached far beyond the highest floor. The ice swirled upwards in a circular design that narrowed until it finished in a point that must have marked the highest part of the castellum.

  The walls were sculpted from a series of linear furrows of ice that reminded Sloane of streaked rock formations that she had seen back in one of the canyons near the Academy on Earth. But it was the throne in the centre of the room that was the most eye-catching. The chair itself was a masterpiece, with large vines of ice that twisted and twirled around the chair and then erupted out the back of the spine and reached high into the air above it. It was hard to miss the chair when the twirling pieces of ice reached up at least a full storey in height.

  Sloane’s gaze then moved to the back of the chamber where huge ancient tapestries hung on the wall. There were many different scenes depicted across the intricate artworks, and Sloane felt drawn to them. Glancing over her shoulder to check the coast was clear, she took several steps into the room and started towards the back wall to get a better look.

  As she got closer, Sloane found herself captivated by one of the first hangings. It showed a star shooting through the sky and then another image of it ploughing into a mountain, before a third and final picture showed the star settled within a lake. She smiled at the hanging, knowing it depicted the Liftsal cave and how the Unfaih believed it was created.

  Sloane slowly continued along the row of hangings, studying every scene carefully. Some of them displayed glorious battles or fearsome beasts. Others portrayed simple aspects of the Unfaih lifestyle, and Sloane felt a pang of recognition as she spotted the glowing orb from the choosing ceremony in the centre of one tapestry.

  She couldn’t help but notice that the first few tapestries she walked past were full of lush greenery. She assumed they were memories of a time before the humans and the Brakys came into the Unfaih world.

  However, the hangings soon became darker and more unsettling. One pictured the scene of a great and bloody battle between the Unfaih and the Brakys, but the next one caused Sloane to stop in her tracks. She instantly knew what it displayed—the closing of the rift to Earth.

  There were three images of the same landscape on the tapestry. The first showed the colourful and vibrant world that the Unfaih lived in before the rift was closed. In the centre of the image, a rift glittered brightly, but a man had his hand reached out towards the opening with a glowing green stone held within his grasp.

  The second part of the tapestry showed the same landscape. Only this time the rift was but a shadow. The glowing orbs had dimmed, and it had shrunk so small that it was barely visible. But it was the area around the rift that had Sloane intrigued. The ground below it had frozen, and ice and snow was crawling outwards from where the rift was, engulfing the greenery as it spread its frozen claws across the lush landscape. It almost looked like an icy ripple effect that started at the faded rift and extended in a circular motion out towards the edges of the canvas.

  The final picture was of the bleak and white world that Sloane had come to know. The rift was gone and there wasn’t a hint of greenery to be seen.

  ‘The tapestries are beautiful,’ a voice said from behind Sloane. ‘But they do not quite do our long history justice.’

  She jumped and turned, not having heard anyone enter. Lorian was standing by the door, and she let out a slight breath of relief that it wasn’t Vas who had discovered her in the throne room. Lorian may have been an elder, but he’d always been friendly to Sloane.

  ‘Sorry, I know I shouldn’t be here,’ Sloane said, glancing over her shoulder at the wall hangings one more time. ‘I was just looking at the tapestries. They’re very impressive.’ She sighed knowing it was unlikely she’d get to see them again.

  Lorian walked across the room and came to stand at her side. ‘I won’t tell if you won’t,’ he said, winking at her.

  ‘Thanks,’ she said, smiling up at him warmly. But Lorian wasn’t looking back at her. His gaze was fixed on the tapestry that showed the Unfaih’s world becoming covered in ice and his eyes clouded over as he stared at the scene.

  ‘That’s the day the rift was closed, isn’t it?’ Sloane asked.

  Lorian nodded and bowed his head to look at the ground. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, but Sloane could see his hands were shaking slightly. The only time she had seen Lorian so distressed was when she had snuck into the meeting of the elders. They had discussed an Unfaih girl who had been stranded on Earth when the rift was closed, and Lorian had reacted in a similar way.

  At the time, Sloane had tried to understand what Lorian’s connection to the girl might have been. She wondered how to ask Lorian to explain, but he seemed to have regained his composure and was now looking down at her, a kindly smile returning to his face.

  ‘I’m glad to see that you’re on your feet again,’ he said. ‘We were all worried when you didn’t wake up after Rhyn gave you the Liftsal.’

  Sloane shifted from one foot to the other. ‘Yeah, I’m pretty glad myself,’ she responded. ‘At least, for now I am,’ she added, looking down into her hands.

  ‘You’re worried about becoming a Braky,’ Lorian said. He was stating a fact, not asking a question.

  Sloane nodded so slightly it was barely noticeable.

  ‘Rhyn told me how your father claimed you were descended from our people,’ Lorian said.

  ‘He could be lying.’

  ‘Perhaps,’ Lorian replied. ‘But it is not impossible. Your brother did not change into one of the creatures after suffering many Braky scratches and neither did you after your first encounter. There may be truth to what he was saying.’

  Sloane nodded, desperately trying to find comfort in Lorian’s words, but she found herself instinctively dismissing them. She didn’t know if holding onto hope made her feel better or worse.

  ‘You were there when the first humans drank the Liftsal?’ Sloane asked.

  Lorian nodded and then guided her towards one of the tapestries further along the wall. It bared a series of frames of an average looking human man slowly changing into a Braky. Sloane swallowed as she looked at the gradual process revealed before her.

  The pictures made the t
ransformation look long and painful, with the human’s face contorted in agony as fangs erupted from his mouth and his back twisted in unnatural angles as claws grew from his fingers. She had been trying not to let the thought of her turning into a Braky distract her, but it suddenly felt all too real as she stared at the shocking images.

  ‘What was it like back when they first started to change?’ Sloane asked, happy to pull her eyes from the tapestry and turn to look at Lorian.

  ‘The humans had been living among us for many months at the time,’ Lorian began. ‘Our existence together was relatively peaceful, but we still struggled to trust them completely. They were obsessed with the strength and the youthfulness of everyone in our village, so we kept the Liftsal a closely guarded secret. They were never supposed to find out about it, but once he started displaying unnatural abilities similar to our people, we began to realise that the humans had uncovered the truth.’ Lorian spoke with a venom that Sloane had not heard from the elder before. She knew immediately who he was referring to.

  ‘You’re talking about the Original Braky,’ Sloane said.

  ‘Yes,’ Lorian replied. ‘This all started when he stole the Liftsal.’

  Sloane thought back to when Rhyn had first revealed to her the story of the Liftsal’s powers. He had told her how a young Unfaih girl had fallen in love with a human man. She had allowed him to drink the Liftsal, hoping he would be blessed with eternal life and that they could be together.

  ‘Rhyn told me that the first man to drink the Liftsal was given it by an Unfaih girl,’ Sloane started, but Lorian quickly interrupted her.

  ‘He stole it,’ the elder barked, his fists clenching tightly again and his eyes filling with sadness and anger. ‘No one is to blame for the Brakys but the evil man who first took the Liftsal. We never should have allowed any of them into our world.’

  Sloane wasn’t sure if she should back away or step forwards and comfort Lorian. She had obviously struck a nerve, just like the tapestry depicting the day the rift was closed had upset him. Given his reaction, she couldn’t help but wonder if the girl who had been trapped on Earth was the same one who had allowed the Original Braky to get to the Liftsal.

  ‘Once that human had the Liftsal, there was nothing we could do to stop him,’ Lorian continued, his voice somewhat returning to the calm and composed tone it usually held. ‘By the time we realised he had stolen it, we were too late. He figured out a way to infect other humans and spread his disease amongst his people. It was then that they started to change.’

  ‘Their appearance?’ Sloane prompted.

  ‘No, at first it was their behaviour,’ he replied. ‘They became short-tempered, angry and violent.’

  ‘Well, I guess I’m doomed then,’ she tried to joke.

  But Lorian did not laugh in response. ‘You are passionate,’ he said. ‘Do not mistake that for the fury that overtook these people.’

  ‘What happened next?’ Sloane asked.

  ‘They started to hunger for more of the Liftsal,’ Lorian replied. ‘We caught them trying to get back to the Liftsal caves, and there were many fights between our peoples as we tried to prevent them from drinking it. They couldn’t stop themselves.’

  Sloane tried not to think about how thirsty she’d been since she’d recovered. She’d been drinking a lot of water to try and quench it, but what if it was something else she’d been craving? She quickly pushed the thought from her mind again.

  ‘What about the changes to their bodies?’ she asked, her gaze flickering back to the picture before them and the portrayal of the slow development of the red eyes and darkened skin of the Brakys.

  ‘Their appearance was the last thing to change,’ Lorian said. ‘We decided to banish the humans, but they did not return through the rift to Earth. They disappeared into the ravine, and when the Original Braky first led the creatures to attack us, their skin had turned the colour of oil and their eyes a bloody shade of red.’

  Sloane swallowed and stared back down at her hands. For the first time, she felt truly scared about what her future could hold. She hadn't displayed any physical signs that she was becoming a Braky, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t going to happen. Perhaps the transformation was already happening, and she just didn’t realise it.

  She looked up and stared into the blood-red eyes of the creature on the tapestry and desperately hoped that one day soon that wouldn’t be her reflection in the mirror.

  Chapter Thirteen

  When Sloane parted ways with Lorian and left the throne room, she still couldn’t get the image of the tapestry that depicted the Brakys’ transformation out of her head. She had given up on searching for Rhyn, and she wanted to return to her room, but she felt too uneasy and doubted she’d be able to sleep. She decided to go and visit Kai. She had barely seen him since she had woken up because he was constantly hidden away in his room, so she knew exactly where to find him.

  Kai had a series of rooms on one of the upper levels of the castellum. The corridors and rooms in the rest of the castellum were mostly large and open with high ceilings, but on the top level everything felt smaller. The hallways were narrow and the roof was lower, making the space feel stuffy and cramped.

  No one else lived up on Kai’s level of the castellum, and most of the rooms that Sloane passed appeared empty. It wasn’t exactly surprising that he would isolate himself in some deserted portion of the castle.

  Sloane hadn’t been to his room before, but Rhyn had pointed out the wing to her previously. She walked into the quiet and dark area of the castellum, carefully listening as she tried to guess which room Kai might be in. She didn’t have to listen for long, as she could hear a soft muttering coming from behind one of the doors at the end of the corridor she was pacing down.

  She knocked gently on the door when she reached it, and a familiar voice sounded from inside.

  ‘Come in,’ Kai called.

  ‘Hey Kai, it’s just me,’ Sloane called as she pushed open the door.

  After hearing muttering coming from the room, Sloane expected to find someone in there with him. But Kai was alone and seated at the table in the centre of the room; his eyes focused on the Oblivion Stone.

  ‘Talking to yourself?’ Sloane asked, shutting the door behind her.

  Kai didn’t look up as she approached, and he didn’t acknowledge her question.

  ‘Kai?’ she said, snapping her fingers in front of his face.

  His eyes jerked up in reaction, and he shook his head apologetically. ‘Sorry, Sloane,’ he said, rubbing a hand across his face. ‘Did you say something?’

  ‘Nothing important,’ she replied, a frown forming on her brow as she eased herself into the chair across from him. Now that he was looking up at her, she could see how sallow his features were and how bleary his eyes looked. ‘When was the last time you slept?’

  He waved off her question with a flick of his hand. ‘I’m fine.’

  ‘Seriously,’ she said. ‘You almost look as bad as Allirie does right now, and she’s recovering from a Braky attack.’

  ‘I heard about that,’ Kai said, softly. ‘Mother told me she’s quite unwell.’

  ‘Which should tell you how bad you look…’

  ‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘But I’ll survive.’

  Sloane leaned forwards and rested her arms on the table. ‘So why haven’t you been sleeping?’ she asked.

  ‘I’ve been studying Joran’s book and running a few experiments with the stone,’ Kai replied.

  Sloane’s interest piqued at his words. But since he was still just staring at the stone in his room, she didn’t feel confident that his tests had been successful. ‘I’m guessing since you’re still stuck in here, and the rift to Aeris is still going strong, that you haven’t had much luck.’

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘I’ve learnt a lot about the stone, but nothing that can help us right now. The stone is a very powerful tool, but I am yet to work out how to use it to close a rift without damaging the world around us. An
d apart from its power to protect an individual from harm, I do not see how it can help us avoid another war.’

  Kai was right. Sloane had gained great power from wearing the Oblivion Stone during the battle with the humans, and it had allowed her to turn the fight in their favour. But now that the Brakys had access to the World of the Woods, they had more serious problems that she couldn’t fix with her sword alone.

  Sloane nodded at Kai and followed his gaze towards the glowing green stone on the table. It was such a small object, and yet it held so much power. She felt certain that it could help the Unfaih in some way, but given how little they knew about the stone, the fragment they had seemed a bit useless.

  ‘While I’ve been working here, Jack has been studying the rifts very closely,’ Kai continued. ‘He has had a few theories as well, but we have no safe way to test them.’

  Jack had been talking more and more about the rifts recently, but Sloane didn’t realise how seriously he was researching them with Kai. She was curious about his ideas, but if they were considered risky, then it was unlikely the Unfaih would allow him to test them given how cautious they were about the rifts and the Oblivion Stone.

  ‘What were Jack’s ideas?’ Sloane asked.

  ‘He has been investigating how the energy that forms the rifts works. But, like me, he is yet to find something that can help us close one.’

  ‘Well, after our meeting with the humans today, we may not need the stone after all,’ Sloane said.

  She tried to sound positive, but even as she spoke she didn’t feel sure of herself. She still wasn’t confident she could trust the humans, and she definitely didn’t feel convinced that the Brakys would not attack their camp again. There were too many different variables at play, and as much as she didn’t want their futures tied to the broken fragment of the Oblivion Stone, she knew they’d be foolish to dismiss it.

  ‘It went well?’ Kai sounded surprised.

  ‘Well enough,’ Sloane replied. ‘They have agreed to join us in the fight against the Brakys.’