Traitor's Crown (Stones of Terrene Book 3) Read online

  And they’d bring her home to Finn. And then Ben would … well, he had no idea what he’d do next.

  He squeezed the bridge of his nose and huffed a long breath out his nostrils. He still hadn’t found a way home. He didn’t even have a clue. He wanted to return to Sara.

  But he didn’t want to leave Raine.

  “Ben?” Finn’s voice came from the doorway, and he poked his head into the room. “Have a moment?”

  “Yeah, sure.” Ben sat on the edge of the bed and fingered the rough canvas strap of his pack. “What’s up?”

  Finn shot him an amused smile. “You should be careful, son. When you’re comfortable, your speech slips into phrases and words we don’t use here.”

  Ben winced. “Good to know.”

  “Indeed.” Finn eased himself down next to Ben, then leaned forward, elbows on his knees. “I know you’ll bring her home.” Ben opened his mouth to reply, then Finn continued, a bittersweet smile just visible through his unkempt beard. “And I give my blessing to whatever grows between you two.”

  Ben’s teeth clicked as he snapped his jaw shut. “I, uh, thank you?” He managed. A fierce joy that he wasn’t expecting briefly flared in his chest before it receded into an ache that tugged at his gut. He blinked down at the hardwood floor before looking up at Finn, conflicting emotions warring within him, but honesty yelling the loudest of all. “Finn. I need to find a way home. I can’t start anything with Raine, not when I can’t guarantee her anything in return.”

  Compassion softened the wrinkles around Finn’s eyes. He settled his hand on Ben’s shoulder. “Have you found any way to go back yet?”

  “No.” Ben closed his eyes, defeat washing at him. “Nothing. Do you have any ideas?”

  Finn shook his head and dropped his hand. “Sorry, no. How you travel from your home to here is beyond any knowledge I know of. There are theories, of course, but they’re just that, theories.”

  “Theories would be interesting to hear,” Ben prompted, curiosity rearing its head like a drowsy cat. He’d allowed himself to be too distracted with everything happening here and had put his search for a way home off for too long. Maybe hearing theories would trigger an idea for him.

  Finn crossed his arms, brows drawn together as he seemed to mentally arrange and order his thoughts. “From what we know of Void Born in the past, we’ve gathered that all the Void Born are from another world.”

  “Earth, if I had to guess.” Ben supplied.

  “Earth, as it were.” Finn said the word slowly, tasting it. “Some have speculated that the Void Born died on the other side, Earth, and have been reincarnated here. Others say that a deity has sent them, or that they stumbled into temporary pockets of the Void somehow.” His face puckered. “There have been those who’ve experimented on the Void Born, which is how the horrors of the blood-bond ended up being created.” He sighed and stared into the distance. “If I’d known that Raine was a Void Born before she’d been adopted and already in our hearts, I would’ve searched for a way to send her back, so she could be with her own family. But,” Finn shrugged. “I didn’t know where she was from in that regard until she was already a child, and I wasn’t going to send her back then, even if I knew how.”

  Ben absorbed Finn’s explanation in silence. His limbs felt heavy, as if he’d swum the entire Lac d’Annecy. “So there’s no way back.”

  “Not to my knowledge, no.”

  No way to go home to Sara. He’d ignored that possibility for as long as possible, even subconsciously pushing off his search for fear of hearing the truth, and now he was hearing it direct. His chest tightened and he forced air out of his lungs. His sister was tough as nails, but even she would break if she lost her only living family member. He had to somehow let her know he was alive. “Do you think there’s a way to send messages to the other side?”

  Finn hummed to himself, contemplative. “I’d imagine that however one would send messages would be the same way we would send you back, and both of those possibilities are something I don’t know how to do. Yet.”

  Ben groaned and covered his eyes with his hand. “I don’t know what to do, Finn. I can’t leave Sara. And I don’t want to leave Raine.”

  Finn didn’t say anything for a long moment. “I won’t live forever, Ben.”

  Ben lowered his hand to look at Finn. “None of us will.”

  Finn had hunched over. His lips twitched. “I’m not talking about the fact of mortality,” he chided. “I’m saying I don’t want Raine here, alone, with no future of happiness for herself, because I’m holding her back.” Finn twined his gnarled hands together. “If you find a way back … take her with you.”

  Shock stopped Ben’s heart before stuttering into motion again. Take Raine … home? Return to Sara, and bring home the one woman that not only easily kept up with him, but could run in circles around him? The one woman that he knew, without a shadow of a doubt, that his sister would love? The one woman who desperately needed someone who could understand her and support her—all while giving her the freedom to be the strong, beautiful soul that she was?

  “I—”

  “I’m not saying you have to if you don’t want to,” Finn broke in. A trace of amusement laced through the serious tone of his words. “Only if you can be the man that she needs you to be. But, if it comes down to it and she chooses you”—Finn stood, facing the door, and spoke over his shoulder at Ben—“then you have my blessing.”

  Finn walked out and shut the door behind him, leaving Ben alone on the bed.

  Ben’s stomach flopped and churned. Did she even feel that strongly for him? Did they have a chance at a future together? Would she even want to go home with him? Where on earth was she even from?

  So many questions and they’d never had time to even discuss the simplest of them before being ripped apart by the Elph.

  He snatched the pack and slung it over his shoulder. First things first. Rescue Raine. Then he try to figure out what future they could have together.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Raine

  Raine heaved a clunky bag over her shoulder and followed the miner ahead of her in the long line of prisoners getting their morning gear. Something sharp poked into her mid-back, but she ignored it while an armed guard handed her a pickaxe, the glint in his eye speaking volumes as to any who would dare turn the axe against him. Simon jogged up alongside her and thrust a hard hat with an attached headlamp at her chest. She reflexively took it and he beamed.

  “You’ll want to put that on soon. It’ll be lit in most the areas we’re heading, but the headlamps make quite the difference once we’re in the new adit.” Simon kept pace at her side, just a bit too close to be socially acceptable and definitely too close to be permissible for her. She eased to the left ever so slightly, trying to return a semblance of her personal space bubble without making a fuss of it. He followed like a lost puppy who’d been fed bacon.

  Raine slipped the headlamp over her head, but didn’t turn it on. A long cord ran down the center of the wide passageway, illuminating the striated salt, dirt, and quartz walls with the brightest gas lights that she’d seen. Overhead, the white salt and blackish gray rock had been cut at an angle that supported the roof of the mine, and it gave the impression of walking down a grand hall in some sort of underground palace. It was beautiful. And she didn’t want to see it a second longer than she had to.

  Simon nudged her with his bony elbow, and her fingers twitched to bat him away. “What did you think of the pit fight last night?” He stepped in front of her, just enough to fully garner her attention, all without being run over by the steady stream of workers from their level. “Raine?”

  Raine shrugged. “It was something.”

  What it was, was both encouraging and terrifying. It wasn’t a requirement to watch the fights, but it was almost the only form of entertainment available to the prisoners, and she’d been just curious enough that she’d followed Simon to watch the battle in the sunken pit of the prisone
r shaft. It was brutal. Man against man, armed by the guards with whatever weapon the fighters wanted. No one died, but she’d winced on their behalf every time someone’s injury got rubbed into the salt-soaked dirt.

  She could fight if needed. She knew how to hold her own, if pressed. Many of the fighters clearly had no training like she did, though they had the strength that she’d never achieve. But before she could consider fighting, she needed to have a better understanding of how things worked here. And after several days of working on cleaning the miners equipment and helping on kitchen duty, she’d finally been slated for the mine itself.

  And through it all, no sign of Ben.

  He must’ve been killed by the Elph. The ground blurred in front of her, and Raine hastily swiped at her eyes, praying that it was too dark for Simon or anyone else to catch her moment of what they would think of as weakness. She wasn’t a fool. No one had messed with her yet, but they were all like dactyls, circling, waiting for a hint of bleeding meat to tear into. She’d seen only a handful of other women, and each one acted hollowly, waiting on the whims of each level boss. Already, whispers had circulated within her range, bets on who she’d end up belonging to. She gritted her teeth. They were in for a surprise. She wouldn’t give them any sort of satisfaction. Unless they wanted the satisfaction of an early death.

  Silently, she thanked Artemis for the hundredth time already for having Simon give Raine her own cell. The guards might grumble each night about how they needed to take the extra twenty steps to lock her in her tiny room, and they might insinuate that she should just give up on her act of being “too good” to stay with Yorick’s gang on the open floor, but it was worth it, knowing she had the security to sleep without having to be on full alert the whole time. It was the best defense she could have, when trapped without a weapon under her pillow.

  Somehow, she’d find her way out of this mess.

  But with Ben gone, there was no one to come for her, no one to back her up. Her grandfather would come if he could, but with the barrier down, what choice did he have? He had to help with that. The lives of her countrymen were more important than just hers. A Void Born.

  She’d never felt so alone.

  So vulnerable.

  “Hey, Raine.” Simon laid his hand on her arm, and Raine jerked back, nearly swinging her pack into the man behind her. He swore at her as Simon laughed. “Someone’s head is buried in the mud.” Simon pointed up ahead to the shift-boss. “You’ll want to pay attention to where he leads.”

  “Right,” Raine murmured. Simon had taken Artemis’s direction of helping Raine learn the ropes of her new home seriously, and wherever she turned, he was there, ready to help. And while it was encouraging, it was also troubling. She didn’t want to be in debt to anyone, in any way.

  And Artemis’s warning rang in her head. No one here was to be trusted.

  Raine didn’t have to press close to hear the lead speak as his voice echoed through the entire cavern, directing the prisoners of different levels to their assigned stations for the day. He gestured at the group that Raine stood in. “Yorick, you’re taking the new vein.”

  Yorick nodded and jerked his meaty neck in the direction of one of the illuminated tunnels. “Get moving, men.” His sharp eyes roved over Raine, and she adjusted her grip on her pickaxe instinctively. He smirked, “and woman.” He turned before she could reply—which was probably a good thing, all things considered.

  The ceiling of the tunnel dipped down as they left the circular active dig cavern and into yet another hallway. Mine carts lined the right side of the wall and the pace of the group slowed. She shifted her pack to her other shoulder, fighting the impatience that thrummed in her blood. She needed to learn her way around the tunnels or find a map of the place, but it seemed like only the guards and shift-boss had that particular piece of necessary equipment. Would they let her explore freely under the guise of learning her new home?

  Yorick assigned different prisoners to their adit or shaft to work. He scanned over Raine as she approached, Simon a steady shadow at her side. Yorick crossed his thick arms. “Simon, you’re in tunnel three. And you’re in tunnel three, too, lass. Let’s see if manual labor will burn some of that defiance off you.”

  Raine lifted her chin and held her breath as she marched past Yorick, trying to keep the stench of his unwashed body from gagging her. Apparently baths only happened every week or two here, and she suspected that some didn’t even bother when the opportunity presented itself.

  Yorick grabbed her arm and her momentum jerked her back. She hissed. Simon stopped and turned, his eyes wide. Yorick leaned in, his foul breath wafting in her face. “Watch yourself, lass. The mines aren’t a safe place for an uppity like you. Someone may decide to take you down a peg, Ms. Void Born.”

  She wrenched her arm from him and shifted her pack, letting it fall between them like a bulky shield. “Thanks for the warning, but I’ll be fine.”

  “Of course.” He gave her a smile that missed a front tooth. “You tell yourself that.”

  Skin vibrating, she jogged down the hall, passing Simon as she kicked up salt dust in small puffs, desperately tagging behind the tail of her tunnel-three group. One of the men glanced back at her and slowed his steps to match her pace while still keeping a respectful distance. “This is your first time in the mine, right?”

  She hesitated only a moment. If he’d been paying attention, he already knew the answer to that question. And there was absolutely no good reason for her to lie over something so inconsequential. Especially not with Simon closing the distance, and likely to say something soon anyhow. “Yes.”

  He gave her a short, friendly grin. “I’m Jeff. Here for political reasons.” His voice lowered, gaze darting back to the group ahead of them in the wide tunnel. The sound of mine cart wheels on the ground scratched at her ears. “I swear I’m no threat to you.” A bittersweet smile crossed his lips. “I have a wife back home, and someday I’ll make it back to her.”

  “Raine.” She couldn’t smile at him. Not when her heart twisted in her chest under the unexpected assault of his hope-filled words. She wanted to get out likely just as much as he did, and yet she knew that they both had the odds stacked against them. Something about his confident hope of returning home only reminded her of the futility of what she faced in her own desperately wished-for escape. And he had to have heard why she was here. She hesitated. “Why––”

  Jeff cocked an eyebrow at her, then seemed to catch on to her unspoken question. He glanced away, his face falling into shadow before he shrugged. “Why am I willing to talk to you?”

  “I––yes.” Raine’s gear clattered as she nodded.

  Jeff fell silent for a few paces. “Knowing what was said about me when I came in, how the prisoners are treated, and often pitted against each other? I have to assume that they see you”—he tilted his head—“female, alone, vulnerable, as someone that they can say and do anything with. Now, if I’m right, and they’ve twisted the truth around you, we can be friends.” His eyes glinted in the overhead light of a luminary crystal. “If I’m wrong, and what they say about you taking down the barrier because you’re a Void Born who wants all of Terrene dead is true, then I’ll kill you myself.”

  Raine lifted her chin and met his gaze squarely. “I’m not as they say I am. I want to protect southern Terrene. This is my homeland.”

  The edge of danger radiating off him dissipated. “Well, Raine,” Jeff gestured with his shovel to her headlamp. “You may want to turn that on in a moment. The overhead lights will be of little use soon, since we’ll be working in a new zone.”

  Raine tugged off her glove and held her finger over the luminary crystal, waiting for the tell-tale warmth of its glow. Simon caught up, and she ignored him in favor of talking to Jeff. “What exactly am I to do?”

  “They gave you a pickaxe, so they’re testing you,” Jeff remarked. “You’ll be in the front with Liam and Carlo. You’ll break down the wall to extend the tunnel, a
nd Simon, Payton, and I will work to shovel out the debris and keep it out of your way.” He shrugged. “Basically, break as much as you can while conserving your energy. We’ll be here all day, and Yorick will be looking for weakness after.”

  “Right.” Raine grimaced.

  Simon’s laugh sounded from behind her. “If you’re tired after this, I can help you limp back.”

  “Thanks.” Raine kept her tone as neutral as possible. She wouldn’t need the help.

  The walls were surprisingly smooth for being hand tunneled, and she whistled lowly when she reached the point where her work would begin. She got the sudden mental picture of herself as a mole, deep underground, scooping and shoving dirt endlessly until she was old and stooped.

  Liam and Carlo didn’t wait for her and immediately started in on the face of the wall. Dirt, salt, and rock crumbled beneath the weight of their swings. Raine licked her lips and wasn’t surprised to find the taste of salt coating them. She scooted to the right of where the two men worked and heaved the axe up to her shoulder, letting it fall forward in a light swing.

  Part of the ground broke easily, while another section didn’t give way, forcing her to concentrate more swings on the same spot until it broke. She focused, playing with different methods of swinging the pickaxe finding her rhythm. Already her muscles were starting to burn. How long had it been? Five minutes? An hour? Longer? She wouldn’t stop for a water break until they did. She’d hold out. She knew how to conserve her energy.

  She grinned to herself mirthlessly. This would definitely help keep her in shape while here.

  Minutes spread to hours, punctuated by the constant plunk, plunk of their axes and shovels. Dust stuck to her sweat-dampened body, creating its own special mix of mud that she was already eager to wash from her skin whenever she’d be given the chance. Chips and chunks of dirt piled at her feet until one of the team shoveled it out of the way and into a waiting mine cart. Once one of those filled, someone—her team or from a different group, she didn’t know—would take away the cart of rubble. Where it went, she didn’t know. All that existed was her, the wall, and the steady pace that she’d set for herself.