Valkyria (16 page)

They just kept asking, whipping me each
time I told them I didn’t know.”

Haze wiped his arms with one of the
clothes, cleaning the blood stains from his skin.

“
What are we going to do?
You will not survive another beating like that.”

Einar sighed and looked at the stone
ceiling. Shaking his head, he rose to his feet and moved toward the
square hole in the wall that was supposed to count as a window.
Through the bars he could see only darkness. He looked left and
right, checking to make sure he was not imagining
anything.

“
It's silent,” he
said.

“
What do you mean? What is
silent?”

“
The entire facility,” said
Einar as he turned from the window. “There are no lights anywhere,
and no one seems to be making a sound.”

Haze opened her mouth to speak, but
Einar gently placed a finger on her lips to stop her. He listened
carefully, waiting to see if he would hear that noise again. He
did.

There was a faint clicking noise coming
from outside. It was coming from beyond the prison's walls, out in
the wild.

“
I have an idea,” he said
after hearing the clicking once more to make sure he was
correct.

“
Do you hear
that?”

He could see Haze straining to hear
anything out of the ordinary, until her eyes widened at the sound
of the clicking.

“
Is that what I think it
is?”

Einar nodded. It was a sound every
living person knew, and one many dead people knew every better. It
was the sound of the Creatures communicating to one
another.

“
I'm going to shout for
help,” said Einar.

Haze's eyes widened further until it
seemed they could very well fall out of their sockets.

“
But that would draw them.
They are attracted to sound!”

“
Exactly,” he replied. “Why
do think the prison is so quiet? My guess is they built this place
next to the Creatures' pack house, and that's why they don't want
any lights or noise at night.”

“
So you want to bring those
things right to us?”

He nodded, knowing entirely crazy the
idea must have sounded.

“
They will keep the guards
busy whilst we escape. What do you think?”

“
Honestly? I think it is a
terrible plan. However, I do not see any alternative means of
escape.”

“
Alright then! Well, this
is going to be tough, that is for sure. We will have to be careful
on the way out.”

Haze nodded and smiled, but Einar could
see she was trembling. Everyone was scared of the Creatures. They
were intelligent pack hunters that wanted nothing more than to
feast on your flesh, and Einar was about to bring their pack down
upon the prison.

He breathed deeply before yelling out
as loud as he could. The clicking stopped, replaced with the
Creatures' hunting scream, the sound of which better fit the
banshees of the Old World's legends.

The sound of the Creatures grew louder
with each heartbeat, Einar’s heart sinking lower with every second.
They were coming, and they were coming fast.

“
I really, really hope this
works…”

*~*~*

27

SERAN

It took most of the night for Seran to
row across the open waters to Midland, but luck had been on his
side; the sea had been calm. Moonlight and stars glittered in the
water’s reflection throughout his journey, but now they had been
replaced with a fiery red blanket as the sun began to
rise.

Mildand, the smallest of the three
isles of the Ringlands, was blanketed by a dense forest, and
remained the only one of the islands that had not seen construction
of towns and cities. As such, there was no dock for Seran to sail
toward. Instead, he rowed up to the beach and pulled the row boat
through the sand, hiding it between two piles of rocks that had
washed ashore.

Once he was sure that the row boat was
safe and secure, he made his way into the sea of trees. The forest
itself was dense, the early morning light barely breaking through
the canopy. Branches whipped his arms and legs as he pushed through
bushes and thickets. Birds of all kinds began to sing, their waking
songs bringing a strange sense of peace to Seran’s mind, but even
that was not enough to calm the thoughts in his head.

Images of the Creatures and the carnage
they had left at Lord Eerhart’s estate ran through his mind over
and over, like a broken record. With every few steps he remembered
Eerhart’s final words.

“
What sort of secret do the
Inquisition fools have?”

Whatever their secret was, he knew it
would, in some way, spell danger to the citizens of the Alexandria
Empire. The Inquisition had destroyed many towns and small cities
of the Empire during their revolt, taking much of the Empire’s
fleet with them when they relocated to the Ringlands.

It had taken years for the Empire to
rebuild the military might that was lost, and even longer for their
engineers to design and build an airship that could equal the
Tempest, now the Inquisition’s flagship.

The loss of the Tempest had been a
major blow to the Empire, as it had been their pride and joy during
the past wars with Three Peaks and the other nations. However, the
Inquisition’s thirst for revenge against the Empire had not be
sated with the theft of the Tempest. They had slaughtered the
engineers who had built it so that they could not build another
quickly.

Thus, Seran could not help but feel a
strong concern about the Inquisition’s new “secret”. They had one
of the most powerful and devastating airships in the known lands;
what else did they need?

As he continued through the forest, he
realized that he had neither means of navigation, nor any idea what
his heading should be. Through the trees, he saw a large mountain;
the Midland volcano. It was the only landmark visible from any
location of the small circular island. As such, he took it as his
heading and began northwest, hoping that he would find some sort of
sign.

Thankfully, his hopes were answered by
the sound of a steamcar trundling along, west of his location. The
rumbling of the engine was unmistakable.

He picked up his pace, sprinting
through the trees. The branches continued to slash at him, now
hitting his face as he ran forward, his arms no longer shielding
his head. The Midland was supposed to be unoccupied land, and yet
there was a steamcar there.

“
Someone else is definitely
on this island,” he said as he ran. “It would seem, milord Eerhart,
that you were correct.”

He ran for what seemed like hours,
although he knew that the island itself was only a few miles in
diameter. Eventually, much to his surprise, the trees opened up and
gave way to a huge clearing.

Tree stumps, the remains of a once
beautiful forest, were scattered around. A chain link fence with
barbed wire stretched along a few feet from the start of the
clearing, with a single dirt track leading to a large steel gate in
the fence. Armed soldiers with pistols, muskets and rifles
patrolled the fence, protecting a large red brick building in the
middle of the compound.

The building was covered in windows,
and a large stone chimney rose from the far side of it.

“
A factory, I
assume.”

Behind it stood the remains of a castle
that appeared to be a remnant of the Old World. The external walls
of the structure had been reinforced with metal braces, and glass
had been used to fill the windows of the castle.

Seran made his way through the trees,
staying in the shadows as he followed the chain link fence around
the compound, getting closer to the castle. From his vantage point,
he could see steamcars in abundance, as well as seven large cannons
stationed around the compound, all pointed at the sky.

“
They have anti-air
cannons? What in the world are they protecting down
there?”

Piping and tubes stretched from the
cannons to a single building in the middle of the compound. Steam
constantly poured from the building, the sound of machinery
whirling away coming from within.

“
A power station,” he said
to himself.

Continuing around the facility, Seran
found himself close to the castle. There were even more Inquisition
soldiers than at the factory.

He knelt down on the ground and watched
the guards, trying to determine their patrol locations. However, as
he watched he heard the same of another steamcar coming closer.
Dust and sand flew up behind the vehicle as it drove through the
compound and stopped at the entrance to the castle.

The vehicle’s doors opened, and a
cloaked man with a walking stick stepped out, followed by a young
girl. The girl wore a brown tunic more befitting a farmer than a
member of the Inquisition, with a purple shawl wrapped around her
shoulders. She seemed to sway from left to right, as if her body
was there but her mind was shut to the world. The guards stopped
their patrols and each gave a salute to the cloaked man.

The man signaled to the girl to go to
the castle, before turning around and walking back toward the
factory. Seran followed him, moving through the trees’ shadows
again.

He moved as close to the chain link
fence as possible as an engineer stepped out of the factory to meet
the cloaked man. As the two men began to speak, Seran was able to
make out a few words, although due to the distance, he was unable
to hear the entire conversation.

“
.. Almost ready,” said the
engineer.

“…
Empire will not be able
to withstand,” replied the cloaked man.

Seran moved to the left, trying his
best to get closer so that he could hear the conversation
better.

“
No matter what they do,”
said the cloaked man, “they will not be able to hold out against
our latest weapon. With this, the Inquisition will finally hold the
greatest power in the known lands.”

“
The fools of the Empire
will not know how to react,” said the engineer. “We will be ready
for testing within three days.”

“
I am glad to hear it. All
of my pawns are slowly moving into place. Soon, our plans will come
to fruition. Do not fail me.”

With that, the cloaked man turned away
and headed back toward the castle whilst the engineer returned to
the factory. Seran stepped backward into the trees once
again.

“
This is bigger than I had
thought,” he said to himself and he walked further into the forest.
“Preparations must be made...”

*~*~*

28

EINAR

The sound of a hundred pistols rang out
through the compound, echoing in the prison cell as Einar watched
the chaos through the window. The Creatures, contorted and rotten,
were flooding over the outer walls of the prison cell, filling the
courtyard in a matter of seconds. Their speed was incredible,
running faster than anyone Einar had ever seen.

The Inquisition guards had set up a
defensive wall, rifles and pistols firing over and over to try and
take out the threat. However, there were just too many of
them.

It only took a few minutes for the
courtyard to be completely overrun, the Creatures tearing through
and feasting on the guards. The silence of the night had been
replaced with a constant screaming from both the guards and the
Creatures.

The screaming from the guards was
horrifying, the wailing sound of death pouring out from their
mouths. Yet the screaming from the Creatures was far worse; the
ear-piercing cries of the hunt, the soul shattering sound that the
Creatures made whenever they saw their prey. That was the sound of
death approaching, and Einar had brought it straight to
them.

“
I really hope this works,”
he whispered to himself as he stepped away from the
window.

Haze was covering her ears, knelt down
against the wall. Part of Einar wanted to join her, but there was
no time to allow fear to take control; they had their chance so now
they had to find a way out of the compound.

A scream rang out from the corridor.
They got inside already? The Creatures were overwhelming the guards
far quicker than Einar had expected. He watched as the guard
outside of the cell leapt from his chair and drew his pistol,
firing wildly down the corridor.

The constant scream was getting closer,
and Einar could see Haze’s eye widen as the Creature came into
view. It charged the guard, who managed to dive to the ground fast
enough that the Creature pounced straight over the top of him.
However, he lost his grip on the pistol, which flew away from his
reach just as quickly as his chance of living.

The guard rolled over, drawing a short
sword from its sheath as the Creature launched itself at him again.
Haze turned away as its claws drove their way into the guard’s
chest, the guard letting out the same dying shriek that had taken
over the compound. However, the Creature’s scream slowly
faded.