Chapter 5: Kaara, Terin’s Crossing

Kaara looked out of the front window of the Broken Wheel Inn and Tavern in dismay. The snow had not begun to melt, and it was already a full month into First Thaw. She hated it here in Terin’s Crossing. Time and events had forced her to bow to the inevitable. To ensure she had enough money to get by while waiting for the season to change, she began her tour as a whore for the owner. The woman that had owned the place had sold out to an old caravan runner that had retired. He had made it clear, if you lived here, worked here, you would serve men and women in all ways here. Or, as he had put it, “You can just go and freeze and starve out there, your choice.”

Kaara had started with two tricks a night. That had increased to four, then six over time. She had always enjoyed sex, now she couldn’t get enough even if she did hate it. She even went so far as to take extra turns in the box. The box was a simple affair. She sat in a closed chamber and would suck off every cock that poked through the holes. She had found she could bend a certain way and the man outside could pound her pussy as hard as he wanted since she couldn’t get away. The pay for time in the box was double of a bed trick. She hated it, all of it. She got money enough to survive and she had been hiding the extra so she could join the first westbound caravan come spring. Spring had not come as it should have.

She had managed to make arrangements to be part of the service crew for the first run, but they were stuck until the roads were cleared. This situation continued until the day of the Flash. That was all anybody could call it. Without warning, the world lit up like it was covered in a giant lightning bolt, then it was gone as fast as it had come. It didn’t happen again, though rumors from the inner city had it something was crazy about the old Brotherhood temple. She was looking out, hating it when she saw clouds building over the Storm Sea. She had seen one rainstorm before the freeze had kicked in, it had been violent in ways she had never seen back out on the Plains. Movement outside the window caught her attention and she tried to catch it if it appeared again. It did, a trickle of meltwater from the roof.

Kaara turned and called out, “The Thaw! It has started, and a big storm is building out over the water!” She figured this would be a reason to celebrate. Instead, it was the cause of people jumping up and running out to return to their homes and businesses. “What?” she said.

One of her sister whore’s limped over to the window. A trick had busted her right leg a few weeks earlier when she had not moved fast enough on him. “Kaara, this thaw is going to be bad. With that much snow melting and rain coming, flood’s girl, floods.” She looked at the storm clouds and shivered, “I hope your family can handle flooding, this is going to be bad.” She returned to the table she had been sitting at, hoping for a customer to get her a few coins for the night.

Kaara watched the clouds roll in, a wave that seemed to be rolling as it moved towards her. Lightning played all across the front line of clouds, and she could hear the resulting thunder growing closer by the minute. The air as far as she could tell had gone still. ‘The calm before the storm,’ she thought. That was when she saw the wall of grey racing across the bay towards the city. “Oh Shit,” was all she said and began closing the shutters. She grabbed the lever that would close the outer storm covers and began screaming to secure the building for a bad storm. Men and women started doing what she was and soon the front room and bar were dark. Lamps and glow-stones turned on and soon it was like a dark night had settled in suddenly.

The owner entered and saw everybody, employees and customers alike gathered under the main support trusses. “What the hell is going on,” was as far as he got when a roar of wind-driven rain and debris slammed the front of the old building. The front doors were not barred, so the wind was able to blast them open. Several men jumped up and ran to secure them properly this time. Wet, melting snow, water, trash, and what smelled like seawater filled the room, soaking everybody and everything in seconds. It was a battle, but ten men managed to close and secure the doors this time. The owner just stood there, hand raised, finger starting to point at them. He dropped his hand, looked around, and stepped to a closet door. This little room held buckets and mops as well as other assorted cleaning supplies. The women, including Kaara, each grabbed a mop and began soaking up the flood that used to be the Tavern.

The mopping went on in silence except for the roaring of the wind outside. One boy that worked in the kitchen was watching them when he saw water starting to flow down the stairs. He tapped Kaara on the shoulder since she was the closest to him and pointed. He watched as she realized what was happening. She grabbed the owner and pointed at the flowing water coming down from above. The look on his face was priceless as far as she was concerned. The front rooms had been blown open and flooded. Kaara gathered a few others and carefully climbed up the flowing river. Every door was open, several had been smashed open by the looks of it. It only took a glance inside the first room to show them what they faced. The beds had been destroyed by the complete soaking. There was no way to close the shutters as most of them had been ripped away by the wind. The downstairs had survived because they had been secured before the storm had hit.

The wind blew water in for another hour before it settled down to a hard rain shower. As the rain lightened, they saw a sight that sent chills of dismay through all of them. The caravan yards were mostly under several feet of fast-flowing water. The river had overflowed its banks so quickly from the meltwater and rain that nothing could be done to stem the tide. The only reason the Inn was not gone as well, it sat on a slight rise. It was enough to protect it for a time.

Kaara knew now that she was stuck until things could be cleaned up and the roads repaired. This fast thaw and storm were more than the people of the Crossing were ready to handle. She did have to wonder if the Flash had anything to do with this disaster. Had she known the truth, she would have fled back home and happily pulled the plow for the rest of her days.

Crypt

The ancient Vampires eyes suddenly sprung open in shock. The Flash, the surge of energy had washed over and through him, waking him fully for the first time in ages. He had been working in his dreams to control his slave, now he had the power to do far more. He felt, well, the best way he could describe it, alive. He made one attempt to push the lid open. It didn’t budge in the slightest. He used his sight and for the first time saw what effort his captors went to see that he never escaped his prison. He was in a coffin of preserved hardwood. That in turn had been sealed in a stone sarcophagus that had been filled with lead. To top it off, the tomb was sealed in a room and then the ceiling and walls pulled in over it to keep it safe from discovery.

It was the tiny shard of the stolen gem that kept him in touch with the outside world. He thought to his slave, the Blood Queen. He didn’t disturb her for long after seeing what she was doing. She needed her kingdom intact if she was to serve as his escape. The flooding was doing massive damage to the riverside and ports. She had simply asked that he not bother her until matters here were resolved. He wanted to do something, so he reached out and found the remaining agents. They were all fighting floods and storms as well. ‘What had that burst of energy been?’ he wondered. ‘Was it the cause of this destruction on a planetary scale?’ He reached across a void and tried to find the place of the Judge of Souls. He knew she didn’t like him but could do little to stop him. This time he didn’t even get close before being driven back to his prison.

“Do not think to enter my domain un-dead creature,” said a woman’s voice. He knew it was her, but she had always sounded weak and simple before. This was a Goddess talking now. Whatever the Flash had been, it had restored her to her full power. He would wait for now. He was good at waiting, so he closed his eyes and returned to the slumber he had been in for so long. He would wake fully when the time came.

The Seven

The seven assassins sat at the bar and watched the storm blow across the cliff face. There wasn’t a thing they could do at this point. Just wait and hope the roads were still passable and the bridges were still standing. The danger to those would be the flooding waters and the floating ice chunks that could wreck anything they hit. They would wait for as long as they needed to wait. They had enough coins to last a few months, but they knew the clock was ticking against them. What they didn’t know was the target’s status. If she was part of the thieves now, they would be in trouble. They would wait. They were very good at waiting.

Tres was in trouble from the flooding. The city had lost all the main road bridges when the ice flows broke and crushed the supports. The city was partially under the floodwaters. The death toll was unknown and may never be known so many had been washed away in those first few hours when the ocean wide storm had blasted its way ashore, washing away the built-up snows. The coastal road seemed to be gone along with several hundred yards of the cliff line. The people worked together as well as they could and managed to stop the spreading waters, but the rapid flow would not be held back for long. The evacuation had been ordered and everybody was pulling out to higher ground on both banks. Only time would tell what was left when the flooding ended.

Upriver at Rivers Bend, what was left of the city after the coal bin explosion vanished in the first night of flooding. Nobody could figure out the death toll, nobody ever would. The few survivors walked away from the destruction towards the nearest farming villages. They hoped they could trade a little coin for food and clothing, not that they expected to get too much for what they had with them. The City of Rivers Bend was gone, once and for all.

Blood Queen

The Blood Queen had crews out before the flooding began and managed to divert much of the raging waters further north, away from the city. She was making a dangerous trade-off though. She knew they would lose a very large area of croplands for the next two or three seasons to save the city. The call from the Vampire had annoyed her. She felt it was different, but she just didn’t have the time to be bothered by him right then.

That evening, as she sat and rested from the hard day out placing the sandbags with her subjects, she wondered at the change in her feelings towards her people. Before this deep, cold winter, she would have let them die. Now she was angry at every lost life. The loss of property upset her too. What was changing in her? She had never cared before.

She heard a voice, the voice, “You are beginning to grow up slave. There may be hope for you yet, but you will serve me and in time, you will regret the need to care for those around you.”

“What of the star death. If I can move enough of my people, we can escape to a new world.” She felt annoyance at the Vampires words.

“You will do what you are told to do girl.” He sent a thought, and The Blood Queen fell to the floor. She couldn’t move, scream, nor even take a breath. “I am in control here, you are my servant, girl. Remember that, or you can be replaced.”

The quivering figure struggled and was finally able to take in a breath of air. Her vision had begun to go grey; her body now numb from the sudden wash of pain. She whimpered, “Yes Master, I serve you.” She passed out then. Her night servants found her curled up in a ball, her face in a rictus of agony. She was breathing, but it was gasping breaths that sounded as if each required the greatest of efforts to suck in and blow out.

The Vampire released her at midnight, warning her that he could do even worse now that he was awake. “When the waters recede, you will send workers to the old castle and dig me out. It is time for me to return to the world of the living and begin making preparations to reach the gate.”

She whispered, “It will be done as you so order it, Master.” She fainted and slept in a nightmare until just after sunrise.

Tara looked at the floodwater racing down the gorge. This town was set well back from the deep cut, so flooding wasn’t as serious here as it was in the surrounding areas. Her scouts had brought back reports of destruction all along the lower and upper coast roads. The conflicts between city-states had stalled out during the freeze but had come to an end when all sides were too busy trying to save their homes. She had hoped to be able to move out with her people after the thaw. The conditions now made travel impossible. Worse, she was able to see where the Rampart Range should be, but the dense cloud cover hid it from view. The thing that her scouts had reported that upset her plans the most was that the melt run-off from the high peaks had taken out the well-worn road up the mountains. She figured that making a new road was in the future for her and her family. The price she paid for not pushing to get over the range before the hard snows had hit.

Tara knew she would have to inform those on the other side of the conditions to the east. She would dream-walk to reach Andrew if she could, Aston then if Andrew wasn’t able to hear her. As night fell, she entered the half-sleep that would allow her to look at anyone she chose. She knew right away Andrew was not reachable now. Bloodrend was secured in a sealed vault. She was able to find Aston and discovered he was on his way back to the region he was assigned to cover. He had been trapped during the initial flooding but was able to travel far enough around to get to where he needed to be. She learned about Ledger and his not totally dead condition. His body was badly burned, and he was not waking up despite the healing efforts going into restoring him.

Aston told her he would send word back about conditions out her way as soon as he came across anybody heading back to the Cove. He knew he would run into a few folks, but he hoped they would be sooner than later.

Andrew, just before the Flash

Andrew looked at the wall of ice that ran from the cliff, down the wall, across the road then down into the valley below. According to the map, this was a waterfall that fell next to the road to the valley then ran under the bridge. The road ended with the ice. It was determined after some chipping and digging, the road and bridge had been crushed by the weight of the ice.

“Ok,” said Captain Risher. “This is a mess and no way to fix it until the thaw hits.” He looked up at the ledge where the ice had spilled over onto the roadway. This road was the main trade road used by the Kingdom and the Ice Spine. It was wide, over forty feet, well graveled and leveled. The loss of the bridge would slow travel and trade for months until it could be rebuilt, ‘If it can be rebuilt,’ he thought. He glanced at his troops and had a thought, “Markenin, grab two others that can climb and see what the top side looks like.”

Andrew looked up, looked at the captain with a look that asked if he had lost his mind. The rock face was a solid sheet of ice all the way up. After a minute of looking at the ice, Andrew walked back down the road a quarter of a mile and looked at the ice-covered rock. He slipped his pack off and pulled out a climbing piton. This was an item he had not had on his original trek across the continent. Now that he had used them a few times, he wished he had had them a few times along the way. To see how firm the ice happened to be, he jammed the iron piton into the ice. He had expected it to just hit and bounce, it didn’t. The spike drove in and caused the sheet to crack and begin splitting. The split was vertical, so Andrew pulled the piton and retreated from the wall in case the ice sheet slipped and fell.

What he saw and heard caused him to panic and yell, “Get clear of the wall!” The split went all the way up and down. Now they could hear a cracking sound coming from the ice above them. On seeing this, Andrew grabbed his pack and began retreating down the road away from the rapidly collapsing ice wall. Andrew made sure his crew was clear and then pulled the group captain away from certain doom. They had made it away from the frozen section of the cliff when the ice let go and began to fall with the sound of crashing and shattering glass. Even as the ice began to settle, water began to pour down from under the frozen lake above.

Nobody had time to say anything at that instant when the world seemed to suddenly begin to glow around them. Andrew swore he could feel the energy flowing into him as it built up then flared in a blinding flash and was gone. What he didn’t expect was the blinding pain he felt in his mind as Bloodrend let out a scream of unearthly agony. Andrew figured he had not been out more than a few seconds as he had not finished falling yet.

‘Bloodrend?’ he thought. ‘Bloodrend, can you hear me?’ he thought again.

‘Master, that boy is going to be the death of us all, if he survived,’ replied Bloodrend in a strangely slurred manner.

‘Boy?’ thought Andrew, ‘Do you mean Ledger?’ he asked.

‘Whom else would I be referring to when the power of this scale is involved. Of course, I mean Ledger,’ snarled Bloodrend, now sounding like he was regaining his senses and strength.

‘What did he do?’ asked Andrew.

‘Do? You have to ask?’ The sword was now pissed about something. ‘What did he do? He just deactivated the thing that caused the great fall and restored the Weave to Gardallen, that is what he just did.’

Andrew was confused at the way Bloodrend was sounding. ‘I assume that is a bad thing then, rather than good?’

‘Good, bad, it won’t matter in the long run. By the way, get the hell off that mountain, the THAW, and I say that with capital letters is about to slam everybody everywhere thanks to that idiot boy.’ Bloodrend went silent and stayed that way.

Andrew looked around, seeing that everybody seemed to be alright for the moment. Something odd caught Andrew’s sense of smell now. He looked up when a sudden breeze began to blow the upper branches of the snow-covered trees. The movement had sheets of suddenly wet snow falling on and around them. “Ok men, we need to get off this slope now, before the ice up there let’s go completely.” He grabbed the smallest of the group and began moving down the road at a brisk trot. The others, hearing the cracking sounds and the sudden warming of the air followed quickly. Sheets of snow and ice fell on the road, forcing the platoon to slow to make their way safely around them.

The run down took two hours when it had taken two full days to clear the road up to the ice wall. Water was running off the road into the gullies, making footing slippery in the gathering mud. Another problem began shortly after they reached the flats. The rains began. The water was warm and as it landed, the snow melted away as they watched. Another danger was the wind. Branches swayed, bent, and broke, crashing down all around them. One of the troops had a large limb fall and trap him in the mud. The rest lifted the limb and pulled him free. He was able to run so they were only slowed for a few minutes. The horses were not enjoying the conditions either. To save the animals, The troop leader ordered the heavy plows dropped next to the road with hopes of retrieving them later. The lightning and thunder had the animals spooked and they kept trying to bolt away from their handlers. It took a few hours in the soaking rain before the wind began to let up. The wind had been in their faces the entire time. Visibility had been very bad because of the blowing rain in their faces. Now that they could see a bit further ahead, they wished they couldn’t. They were approaching a bridge that crossed the river the falls behind them fed, only there wasn’t a bridge there anymore. The water was over the banks and flowing hard and fast. They could make out whole trees being washed downstream by the flooding. As they watched, they could see the water was still rising and would reach them soon if they stayed. Turning back the way they had come, they rushed back to the first rise of the mountains, hoping they would stay above the waterline through the approaching night.

Aco

Aco looked out at the blowing rain and shivered. The first blast of wind and water had shattered several of the older buildings. It would take time, but they would rebuild. What she couldn’t understand was the Flash just before the storm rolled in. She felt the energy and now she wanted to try and jump as far as she could. Whatever it was had to be the cause of the storm. The temple was on the high side of the city, so the flooding wasn’t as bad as it was else-where she was certain. The streets were rivers of fast-flowing water, muddy trash, debris. Once she thought she saw a body being washed downhill in the flood.

Aco, along with the rest of the school of martial training huddled down and waited for the storm to pass. They would go and help as much as they could, but without supplies, there was little they could do.

Robin

Robin sat at the high window and looked out over the city. The winds had been enough to rattle the upper floors of the Broken Sword. The building was strong and withstood the beating it was taking. What she was worried about were her friend and lover. She had seen the school and knew the flooding could wash it away and not be slowed in the least. She figured Aco would survive, she was just worried that many would not. This storm was unlike any she had ever seen or imagined. The temperature had gone from well below freezing to very warm in a matter of hours. The rain was washing the snow away, raising the river levels faster than they could drain. Downstairs, Gareth had been fighting a battle to keep the water out of the front lobby and stables. So far, he had managed to keep the inside of the Hotel dry, the stables though would need a lot of work to return them to some form of usability any time soon. The animals that had been stabled were ok so far, not happy, but alive.

The other incident was the Flash. She somehow knew that it was closely related to the sudden change in the weather. As it had washed over her, she felt her throat tighten, then relax several times. Since then, the only time she had spoken was to inquire about some food on her one trip down to the kitchen. She had not spoken loudly, yet it sounded like she had spoken loudly and clearly like she was being taught in her schooling. Without thinking about it, she began to hum one of the practice scales to warm her voice. What she heard was something different. What should have been a clear, single note became a cord of several tones mixed, like four voices working as one.

She stopped and thought, ‘What the hell?’ She sang the notes out loud and stopped right away. The mirror on the wall she was looking at had begun to vibrate violently. ‘What is going on here?’ she wondered. Out loud, “What is happening to me?” This time, nothing happened. Her voice had been normal sounding, not overly loud and nothing had tried to shake apart. “Ok Robin,” she said to the mirror image, “Something has happened to us. I need someplace I won’t cause mass destruction if I screw up.”

Robin pulled her oiled, wet weather cloak from the closet and pulled on her new thigh-high boots. She had made the mistake of wearing a truly short skirt the first time she had gone to the dining room while wearing them. Every eye, male and female in the place turned to follow her as she went to the dining room. Most of the women’s looks had been hostile, but a few looked like they wanted to jump her right there. The men had just watched her passed by, glassy-eyed, drooling on themselves.

Downstairs, she informed Gareth she was going to try and make her way to the bard college. He only told her to be careful. Outside the wind was still blowing in from the coast hard enough that she had a difficult time walking in a straight line. The rain, while not the drenching downpour of a few hours earlier, was still enough to soak her to the bone right through the cloak. She had made it several blocks when she heard a rumbling sound coming towards her from upriver. She turned a corner that would lead her to the south river and froze. Water was rushing down the road towards her several feet higher than her head. She knew in an instant that running was useless. In a final act of defiance, she screamed at the oncoming wall of water. What happened next scared her to her core. She saw waves in the air race away from her and slam into the wall of rushing water. The upper two-thirds of the water wall seemed to shiver then blasted away into a mist. Robin did not understand what she had done, but she knew she had been the cause. Seeing this as a possible way to escape the flood, she inhaled until her lungs had as much air as she could hold. She looked at the water that was still coming at her, including a new high wave. She let loose a solid note of the middle C. She held the note for five seconds then jumped it an octave. Now the water exploded, and the mist was driven back. It also had the effect of shattering every glass window down the street.

She took another breath and let loose with the middle C again. She walked into the flood, driving it back with this new power of her voice. ‘Is this what he meant by the power of the voice?’ she wondered briefly. The mist would settle into a steady flowing runoff as she passed by. She made it to within a few blocks of the river but was stopped by the flood. The water was three city blocks over the banks now and still rising. The rain alone could have been handled, the melt-off had been too much for the rivers to handle. She wondered how the north side and ports were holding up, then turned back to the Hotel. The way to her school was closed to her for now.

As she turned away from the river, she heard a loud cracking sound behind her. She spun back just in time to see a large, multi-story warehouse building collapse and be washed away by the flood. The rushing flood had washed out the foundations, she heard another building go a minute later. She glanced up at the windows and saw lights inside. Not thinking about her own safety, she ran up the short steps to the door and began banging and yelling.

“You need to get out, hurry, the flood is coming and washing everything away!” She screamed this, not thinking and the door blew apart. The family that lived in this apartment stared at her in terror. “The flood, it is destroying every building, you need to get out!” she said, fighting to keep control of the power she now had. “Warn anybody that will listen, get everybody away from the river.” Robin jumped down to the street, ran up the steps across the way, banging on the doors, being careful to not blow the doors apart, yelling the warning. One door opened a little and she saw a child’s face peer out at her. The little girl looked scared, “Momma went away last night and didn’t come back. I have to stay for my baby brother.” The girl could not have been more than five, maybe six years old. Robin noted in passing the girl’s black hair, and simple brown, sack-cloth dress.

“Show me, I have to get you away from here before the waters reach this street.” Robin carefully pushed her way inside so as not to hurt the little girl. The girl pointed at a cradle where Robin could hear a baby crying weakly. She lifted the baby, took the girl’s hand, leading her out of the doomed building. The water was only half a block away now. She did not want to risk hurting the girl or infant by using her voice to drive back the waters. She pulled the girl at first, then leaned down and lifted her to her left side, while supporting the baby with her right arm as well as she could.

“What’s your name?” she asked the girl.

The girl was crying in terror now. She had seen the rushing waters down the street. “Cinda,” was all she said. “And your brother? What’s his name?” “Momma calls him Sheen.” She stayed quiet now, looking behind them as Robin outpaced the rising waters. Robin made for the hotel to get to safety for the children and herself. She also needed to warn Gareth that the lower sections of the city were flooding. She wanted to get word to Brena, though she suspected Brena was already well-aware of the dire situation.

When she arrived back at the Broken Sword, the head butler wanted to know who the children belonged to. “Their mother went out last night and never returned.” Several maids came to take the children off Robin’s hands. “We have a bigger problem now. The rivers have blown their banks and the flooding is destroying the city along the banks. That’s where I rescued those two from. We may be seeing more folks soon as buildings are being washed away by the flooding.” Robin went to the maid that had taken Cinda. “Can you watch over them for now at least?” She asked. The maid looked to be in her mid-thirties, sturdy in build, and always had a smile.