The Rift War Page 22

  Esther smiled warmly at Sloane in response and stepped forwards to grip her shoulders with both hands.

  ‘You are not becoming a Braky,’ Esther replied. Not a hint of doubt clouded her reassuring eyes, and her voice was filled with certainty.

  ‘I’m not?’ Sloane’s tone still trembled with nerves.

  ‘No,’ Esther said. ‘Not in the dark way you imagine it, at least.’

  ‘What does that mean?’ Sloane’s voice rose slightly, her uncertainty returning.

  ‘You and I are special,’ Esther continued. ‘We are not Brakys, but we are not Unfaih either. We are both our own unique blend of the two.’

  Sloane still wasn’t entirely sure what Esther meant, but her mind flashed to the battle with the Brakys outside the human camp. The original Braky she fought had sensed something in her and told her she was neither human nor Unfaih. She had feared the creature knew she was becoming a Braky, but maybe it couldn’t tell whether she was Braky, Unifah or human, because she had a part of all three within her.

  ‘You will develop the strength and speed of both the Brakys and the Unfaih,’ Esther said. ‘But never the red eyes, bone-white hair or ink-black skin of those terrible creatures.’

  Sloane could feel unwanted tears welling in her eyes as all of the tension and fear she’d been bottling up for weeks rush out of her in one strong release of emotion. ‘I’m really not becoming a monster?’

  ‘You’re not becoming a monster, I promise you that Sloane.’

  Sloane was experiencing so many competing emotions. She didn’t know whether to shout with joy, laugh or crumble to her knees and sob. Instead, she merely stepped forwards and pulled both Esther and Rowe into a hug.

  When she finally took a step back from their embrace, she could see that she wasn’t the only one getting emotional. Rowe was smiling broadly, and her face was streaked with happy tears.

  ‘I told you there was no way you were becoming a Braky,’ Rowe said.

  ‘That’s not to say your transition is complete, Sloane,’ Esther added. ‘There will be challenges as you adjust to your new strengths, but there is still human blood within you too. You’re still the same Sloane.’

  ‘Well, we wouldn’t want our sister changing too much,’ Rowe smiled.

  ‘Are you sure about that,’ Sloane laughed, tears still threatening to gather in her eyes. ‘Maybe Braky Sloane would have been less scary.’

  ‘Maybe,’ Rowe shrugged before her smile turned into a wide grin.

  Sloane narrowed her eyes at her sister. She was getting a lot cheekier as her confidence grew. But before she could respond, another figure appeared in the entrance to the castellum behind Esther and Rowe.

  ‘Hello, Sloane,’ Orelle said, her usual warm smile covering her face as she came to stand by Rowe.

  Sloane nodded in greeting. She hadn’t seen Orelle in a while, and she didn’t want to be rude, but there was one thing she wanted to check before she said anything else to the Unfaih woman.

  ‘How’s Allirie? she asked as some of the nerves she had felt before crept back into her chest.

  ‘She is doing better.’ Orelle spoke seriously, and her eyes betrayed the gravity of Allirie’s condition. ‘There is still a long way to go, but I hope she will recover soon. I’m sure she would like to see you.’

  ‘I’d like that too,’ Sloane agreed.

  ‘You won’t come to the village with us?’ Rowe asked, looking at Esther and then back to Sloane.

  ‘No, sorry,’ Sloane answered. ‘You both go ahead. I’ve got some things to check on in the castellum.’ Orelle nodded and began to walk across the courtyard.

  ‘We’ll see you when we return,’ Esther said. ‘We can talk more then.’

  She started off after Orelle, and Rowe moved to follow but paused briefly to give Sloane another hug.

  ‘I’m so glad you’re going to be okay,’ Rowe whispered.

  ‘Yeah,’ Sloane agreed. ‘Me too.’

  Sloane watched her family trailing after Orelle, and only turned and made her way into the castellum once they had disappeared from sight. She felt somewhat numb as she wandered through the castellum corridors. She’d spent so long looking for signs that she was going to turn into a Braky, she didn’t quite know how to feel now that she knew she wasn’t.

  She could suddenly see a future in front of her, one that she desperately wanted, and that almost scared her more than the uncertainty she’d felt before.

  As she walked through the castellum, Sloane tried to push thoughts of her future from her mind, and she began to think of her other sibling. Rowe and Esther weren’t her only family in the world of the Unfaih, and she knew Ash would be back in the confines of his room.

  While she didn’t particularly want to see him, she was curious about his reaction to what Esther had said. He had taken it as hard as any of them and seemed angry, confused and shocked by the story. It was impossible for her to get their father’s version of events, but she felt confident that Ash, who had spent so much time with the Captain, must know something that could help her understand what was going on.

  Two guards were standing outside Ash’s room when Sloane arrived, and she gave them both a nod in greeting. Her hands were restlessly fidgeting as she approached the door, and she was already wondering if speaking to her brother was such a good idea.

  With one hand reached out towards the door handle, she paused. She wasn’t sure if Ash believed Esther, and she wasn’t sure if she could trust him to be honest with her about what he was feeling, and what he knew. He was her brother though, and she needed to hear his side of things. She took a deep breath and entered the room.

  Ash was pacing from one wall of the small room to the other when Sloane walked through the door. His eyes were bloodshot, and his skin was pale. His hair was ragged, as though he’d been running his hands through it all morning, and he looked like he hadn’t slept in some time.

  He glanced up as Sloane entered but didn’t miss a beat as he continued to pace. ‘It’s not true, you know,’ he said.

  Sloane frowned at his comment, confused about what he was thinking. ‘What’s not true?’ she asked, folding her arms across her chest as the door shut behind her and she was left alone in the room with Ash.

  He seemed extremely unsettled, and it scared Sloane a little to see her brother so frantic. Ash was always cool and in control, but now he was nothing like his usual self.

  ‘Everything Esther said,’ he spat. ‘It’s not true. It can’t be.’ He sounded desperate and frustrated, like Esther’s story had changed something within him. Sloane had been struggling to come to terms with what they had heard, but Ash appeared to be drowning under the pressure of the information.

  ‘We have no reason to doubt her,’ Sloane replied

  ‘We have every reason to doubt her,’ came his response. His eyes were wild and betrayed a feeling of uncertainty that his words had not conveyed.

  Sloane let out a breath before she continued to press him. ‘Why are you so convinced that she’s lying?’

  Ash shot her a scowl but didn’t respond.

  ‘I know you probably don’t trust me,’ Sloane continued when he remained silent. ‘But I want the truth as badly as you do. Perhaps if you start being a little bit more honest with me, we can work out what is a lie and what isn’t.’

  Ash swallowed and stopped marching around the room for a brief moment. There was so much tension in his muscles, and as he turned to look at Sloane, she could see a mixture of hurt and anger in his eyes.

  ‘Ash,’ she demanded. ‘Tell me why you think Esther is lying.’

  ‘Because her story was nothing like the history of our family that Father told me,’ he replied, sighing like he had given up trying to fight with her any longer.

  Sloane felt her chest tighten as her brother spoke. She had felt like he’d been hiding something from her the whole time he had been imprisoned in the castellum, and now it seemed like he was finally going to tell her the truth. He took a d
eep breath and looked Sloane directly in the eyes for the first time since she had entered the room.

  ‘When I turned eighteen, Father took me aside and told me the history of our family,’ he started. His voice sounded strained, though there wasn’t a hint of emotion in his expression as he spoke.

  Sloane didn’t so much as blink, and she listened intently. Any trust between them had been shattered into a million pieces in a few short weeks, but for a moment Sloane started to hope that perhaps their relationship wasn’t entirely unrepairable.

  ‘He explained to me that our family had a legacy,’ he said. ‘It was a legacy that generations and generations of Avery men and women had dedicated their lives to, and he told me that I was to be a part of it.

  ‘He spoke of a beautiful world on the other side of a rift, that contained miraculous healing waters. The water could cure even the worst injuries and illnesses. He said it could even have saved our mother.’

  ‘The Liftsal,’ Sloane guessed.

  ‘Yes,’ Ash nodded. ‘Father told me that there were people in this world who guarded the water. They selfishly kept it to themselves and did whatever was necessary to protect it. Our mother and father both searched for a way to access the world and obtain the healing water so they could use its remarkable powers to help people. Father said they had been close to finding an answer, but that was when the Unfaih came for them.’

  Sloane watched Ash as he retold the story, looking for any sign that he might be making it up. His gaze often fell to the floor as he spoke, but it seemed to Sloane that the reason he couldn’t look her in the eyes was from shame rather than deception.

  ‘Father told me there was a group of Unfaih living on Earth. They were there to protect the water and deal with anyone who threatened to expose their secret. They killed our mother when she got too close to finding out the truth.’

  He fell silent, and Sloane could see he was still struggling to understand what was real and what wasn’t. Ash hadn’t spent much time with the Unfaih, but surely he had seen enough to know that her father’s story didn’t make sense. Sloane knew as soon as she heard it that she didn’t believe it. She thought she could see doubt growing in Ash’s eyes, but it appeared he was still desperate to convince himself that the Unfaih were the enemy.

  ‘I dedicated my life to finding a way to Ellysia,’ Ash continued. ‘I wanted to find a way to stop people from becoming ill and suffering from injuries like our mother did. Our mother wasn’t Unfaih; she was killed by them.’

  Sloane swallowed a tight lump in her throat. She didn’t believe her father’s version of events, but she could tell that Ash longed for it to be true. He didn’t want to face the possibility that he had been living a lie.

  ‘Do you really believe that father was telling you the truth?’ she asked.

  Ash pushed a hand roughly through his hair, a look of confusion and agony on his face. ‘I have to,’ he replied, barely louder than a whisper. ‘I can’t live with myself if it’s not true.’

  Sloane’s heart broke for her brother. He was starting to shake, and he reached out a hand to support himself against the wall. She didn’t want to push him, but he needed to accept the truth.

  ‘Why would Esther come all this way just to sell us a lie?’ she asked. ‘She knew about the locket and about the Oblivion Stone. She’s drunk from the Liftsal and didn’t turn into a Braky. Even Lorian said we have his daughter’s eyes. Not only that, but Father admitted to me that we were descended from the Unfaih in the Liftsal caves. I told you this long before I ever heard Esther's version of events.’

  ‘I know,’ Ash replied, his voice breaking. ‘I know.’ He clenched his eyes shut as though it would help him hide from Sloane’s words. The truth was tearing through him and shattering everything that was holding him together.

  ‘Esther is an Unfaih, and so was our mother,’ Sloane continued. ‘We have Unfaih blood in our veins. They are not the enemy.’

  She took a step closer to Ash, but he cowered away, wrapping his arms around his body as he looked up at her with inconsolable eyes.

  ‘Our father is the one who has been lying to you, Ash,’ Sloane continued. ‘All he cares about is the Liftsal. Like Esther said, it has been his life goal to find it. But when he finally got it, he didn’t take it back to heal his people like he told you. He took it to the Brakys.’

  Ash’s eyes were darting around wildly as she spoke, but Sloane could see his mind whirring as it filtered through everything that he had been told by Esther and their father.

  ‘Why do you think he attacked the Unfaih so recklessly?’ she added. Sloane didn’t let up, sensing that she was getting through to her brother. ‘It was because he has no interest in setting up a new life for our people on Aeris. He only came here so he could get to the Liftsal.’

  ‘No,’ Ash shook his head. ‘Esther is the liar. She has to be. I need it to be a lie.’ His eyes were begging Sloane to understand. But it was obvious to her that Ash knew their father had been manipulating him. There was too much evidence to back up Esther’s story, and Sloane suspected that Ash had been struggling to cope ever since he had first heard the news.

  ‘I know,’ Sloane replied. She spoke more carefully now as she attempted to console her brother. ‘It’s not your fault for believing the Captain. He was feeding you lies for years. How were you supposed to know? You can’t blame yourself.’

  ‘Can’t blame myself?’ he asked, his eyes filled with torment. ‘Good men died because I was following Father’s orders. I’ve put the whole settlement and everyone in it at risk because of him. I was tortured by Brakys and had to watch as my team turned into monsters before my very eyes. He told me that the Brakys weren’t a threat; that we’d be able to do anything we wanted once we had the Liftsal. I didn’t know he was following those creatures all along.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Ash, but he was,’ Sloane said. ‘He is probably with the Brakys now, and if he drinks the Liftsal he stole, he will become one of them for good.’

  Tears started welling in Ash’s eyes as he turned and slammed a fist against the wall behind him. ‘Everything I have done is because I wanted to make him proud. I loved him, and I believed in him. I was following his orders and I never once thought to question them. I never once thought to question him.’

  Sloane could see his breaths were coming in fast as his back rose and fell in quick successive movements. She felt frozen to the spot though, Ash’s revelations twisting inside her like a knife.

  ‘Even when he abandoned me here, I believed that he would come back for me,’ he said, turning back to face Sloane. His cheeks were streaked with tears, his eyes even redder than they were before.

  ‘But it was all a lie, wasn’t it?’ he said. He slowly let out a breath, leaned back against the wall and sank down to the floor, curling his legs in close to him.

  Sloane crouched down where she was standing, lowering herself to Ash’s level. Her brother had never needed comforting like this before, not from Sloane at least. Even when they had brought him back from the Brakys’ lair he hadn’t seemed so broken.

  ‘It was a lie,’ Sloane said. ‘But there’s nothing we can do to change it now.’

  ‘No,’ Ash agreed, but then Sloane thought she saw a flicker of purpose in his eyes. ‘We can’t change what has happened, but maybe I can help change what will happen next.’

  Sloane didn’t move as she stared at him. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Father has taken the Liftsal and gone to find the Brakys, right?’ he asked, his eyes starting to shine brighter with resolve.

  ‘Yes, it seems that way,’ Sloane answered.

  ‘Well, I know you don’t trust me,’ he said. ‘But I think I know what the Captain has planned with the Brakys, and I think I can help.’

  Sloane swallowed at his words, not daring to breathe as she prepared herself for what was coming. ‘What is he planning?’ she finally asked.

  ‘Just before the battle with the Unfaih, Father sent a message to Earth to
say that Aeris is safe for colonisation. There are a hundred ships already on the way.’

  ‘When did this happen?’ Sloane asked, quickly standing tall again. ‘Who else knows about it?’

  ‘I’m not sure when he made the call, but he only told me,’ Ash replied. ‘I thought he was just confident we were going to win the battle, but now I see that he never had any intention of returning to Aeris. If he is with the Brakys now, then he must have called those ships for them.’

  Sloane’s heart sank. If thousands of humans landed on Aeris, and the Brakys were allowed to get to them, the creatures could expand their hoard to an insurmountable number.

  ‘I have to warn Rhyn,’ she spluttered, turning towards the door. She slammed her hands on the hard wood to alert the guards to open it and let her out.

  ‘I’m sorry, for everything,’ Ash murmured from behind her.

  She let out a breath and turned to look at him. ‘I can’t tell you that you’re forgiven,’ she said. ‘You’ve made some serious mistakes. But I’m not writing you off. Not just yet.’

  She thought she saw a glimmer of hope in Ash’s eyes, but she turned and left the room before she could hear his response. She had given him a chance to tell her the truth, to redeem himself, and he seemed to have taken it. But given what Ash had said about the human ships, Sloane was praying that her brother had told her another lie.

  Chapter Twenty

  ‘We have a problem,’ Sloane said, as she entered Kai’s chambers. Jack and Kai were both seated at Kai’s worktable, and she was glad to find that Rhyn was there too. She’d searched for him throughout the castellum until one of the warriors in the training yard had told her that he was with Kai.

  ‘Do you ever bring good news, Sloane?’ Jack said.

  Sloane ignored his comment as she marched across the room. Rhyn stood up as she neared and walked to meet her.

  ‘What is it?’ he asked, reaching out a hand to lightly grip her arm. Her skin warmed at his touch, and his eyes were soft but questioning as he looked at her. His presence seemed to fog her brain for a brief moment, and her heart fluttered at his closeness. She took a deep breath, trying to ignore the way her skin tingled as she focused on his question.