The Woman of the Void (The Kota Series) Read online

  She’d stopped crying, and now she sat on the bed in a state of numbness. Changed into a dress Thurston had requested, she didn’t even fidget in the tight garment. She just waited.

  Finally, the door creaked open and he entered. He wore an expensive suit. He looked slightly older than the last time she’d seen him in person. Frowning, he walked to the edge of the bed and sat beside her.

  She couldn’t look at him, and she kept her gaze on the faded carpet. “I want to see the boys.”

  “That won’t be happening.”

  This had been her fear, and she felt tears rising again. “Please, Thurston. They’re my sons. I haven’t seen them in-”

  “They’re my sons.” He crossed his arms. “Did you love Carlos?”

  Tears flowing, she faced him now. “No. I swear, I didn’t. Is that why you ordered them to-”

  “Yes.”

  She felt horrible, though she didn’t dare explore the nature of her sorrow right then. “You’re not going to let me go back to my lab, are you?”

  “No, your research is over. I’m burying that whole project. I’ve already killed the techs from the facility.”

  She sucked in a breath.

  “Thanks to your secretive little cloaking spell, no one’s ever been able to spy on that facility, so no one knows what went on there. You actually saved me loads of trouble with that. So thank you, although I now forbid you to use magic ever again.”

  “I thought you wanted me to-”

  “I was interested in your magic, yes.” His eye twitched. “But I’m starting to realize it’s a bit more than I can control.”

  She swallowed.

  Have I outlived my usefulness? she wondered.

  “Are you going to kill me? Why not just have them do it back in the lab?”

  “Because you’re Kota. I’m not going to kill one of our own people and leave your body to…” He shook his head with a sigh, then looked across her room. “Are you even Kota anymore? Am I? I’m not sure if any of our people really qualify anymore – too many years have gone by since the world turned upside-down. Even the village grew restless and wanted more than the path laid out by our ancestors.”

  She looked back at him through her tears. “Let me go home. Please. If you’re taking the boys from me, if you won’t let me use my arts, then home is all I have left.”

  He smirked and stood. “Then you have nothing, I’m afraid.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The village was overrun by factors.”

  This hit her hardest of all. Factors – she’d learned this to be the term used for people infected by the DRK. These victims of the virus were known to lose their humanity. They became covered in a hideous gray fungus, lost all their hair, and were so crazed they often sought human flesh for sustenance. In the cities they’d been put down and kept out for centuries, but they ranged the wilderness in herds, hunting.

  “How?” she asked in horror. “I thought the Dominion’s wall kept them out. No one survived?”

  He glared down at her and crossed his arms. “No one survived.”

  He’s lying, she thought. He must be lying. He wants to keep me here. But why?

  She tried to prepare herself. “So what becomes of me now?”

  Thurston stepped to the wall facing the foot of the bed and activated her terminal screen. He entered a few commands, and then a newsfeed came onscreen with a window playing a looped video.

  It showed a swirling portal of red and yellow. This was not, however, one of the permanent DuoPorts she’d learned about. No, this was neither of those giant, ancient portals. This portal was smaller, swirling over a sidewalk by a city hospital. A man in a dark coat stepped out of this portal of fiery lights, and he made a hand motion that closed the swirl after him. The video played over and over as the newsfeed scrolled an article speculating on the man’s identity.

  “I’m keeping you here,” Thurston finally told her, “because I’m hoping you can help me figure out who this man is and how he controls the portals. I need to find and stop him. Since this seems like something up your alley, I thought you could be useful.”

  She looked at him.

  “I know his portals aren’t like yours,” Thurston went on, “but I’m hoping you can tell me something useful. I’ll leave you to watch this newsfeed and study some reports I’ve downloaded to your terminal. I’ll be away for a few weeks, but I expect regular updates on anything you discover.” With that, he turned to the door.

  Vedanleé stood quickly from the bed. “Wait. Please, tell me one thing before you go.”

  A hand on the doorknob, Thurston looked back at her and raised his eyebrows.

  “Did you have them killed?” she asked with a swallow. “Halvar and the other men who tried to leave the village? Just tell me. I take it I’m your prisoner now, so what can it hurt?”

  “Yes, I had them killed. They were breaking their vow, after all. No Kota leave that village.” He grinned. “I turned off the wall too. I let the factors in.”

  Vedanleé gaped at him. “You let our people be slaughtered? Bylgja, your own grandmother?”

  “Oh, no. Grandma died quite a while ago.”

  She felt more tears. “And my mother?”

  He smirked at her and bowed. “I’ll leave you now, my dear. I’ll say hello to the boys for you.” With that, he left.

  She heard the door lock behind him, and she collapsed back onto the bed.

  No more illusions of freedom, she realized. I’m a slave. I have nothing. I have no one. This whole time I’d hoped… Our people are gone. He’ll never let me see my sons again. Oh, my poor, sweet boys…

  After a long cry, she sat and looked around the bedroom. She felt her chest tighten with anger.

  I’ll make him pay, she thought. He will not break me. I’m a Kota woman. The Woman of the Void. I will find a way to make him pay.

  Finally, she wiped her eyes and looked at the terminal screen again. She watched the video of this stranger who stepped out of a fiery portal and commanded its power. She watched carefully as he made the motion with his hand.

  It’s not a spell, she thought. How is he controlling it?

  One thing was certain: He could enter and exit the space dimension. He must be using it to travel from place to place.

  If he can do it, she thought, so can I.

  4

  Five months, one day ago

  Her arms ached where he’d beaten her. For years now she’d done everything he asked, whenever he asked. Unfortunately, the Dominion had made little progress in their investigation of the stranger who could open portals. Thurston took out his wrath on Vedanleé, blaming her for not being able to decipher whatever trick the man had up his sleeve.

  She had not seen her sons. Dominion servants brought her food and other necessities, and she’d begged them to relay messages to her boys, but the servants were no fools. Her only contact with the outside world was channeled through the Dominion newsfeeds on her terminal screen, and occasionally she’d find one where Thurston made a public appearance with the twins. These videos she played over and over, weeping and touching the screen over their preteen faces.

  But “he won’t break me” had become her mantra.

  In secret, with a cloaking spell shielding her private quarters, she’d spent a few years now practicing with small portals of the void. She’d found a way to cross them, and she was getting better and better at controlling where they led. The first time, she’d only dared cross through the space dimension from her bedroom to her bathroom. On subsequent attempts she’d grown bolder, crossing to cities she’d visited over the years. (She’d discovered it was only safe to open portals to locations she’d visited before, otherwise she couldn’t control exactly where she came out.) No matter the distance, she felt the same effects every time she crossed – a freezing chill, the strength of the void’s pure power, the disconnection from reality. And there were side effects…

  But I can do this, she thought as she
closed her curtains to further cloak her activity. I went to Chi and back last week. South Yor and back three days ago. If I’m ever going to risk crossing the void all the way to the village, I need to go now. Thurston is really losing it lately.

  Sealing her winter coat up around her neck, Vedanleé twisted her long hair to tuck into her collar. Then, she faced the blank wall. She stretched out her hand, felt her gift surge through her body with a familiar chill, and spoke the words.

  “Avari. Revnog. Dashni.”

  A portal of darkness spun open in front of her.

  I could get addicted to this, she thought. If it weren’t for…

  She swallowed and prepared herself. Then she stepped into the cold darkness. The air around her – if it could even be called air – immediately dropped to freezing. She felt a wave of nausea and willed herself forward into the nothingness. She didn’t walk exactly. It was more like floating through rolling waves of energy. Bursts of power pulled her deeper and deeper in.

  “Avari! Talahadra! Astoni!” she shouted into the void.

  Immediately an exit spiraled open before her. This revealed the world outside, and she saw stony ground along a stream, a rising mountainside, and a waterfall splashing down to fill the stream.

  With a lurch, she exited the void and stood on solid ground again. Sound returned with a chirping bird and the longed-for sound of the pouring waterfall. Vedanleé turned to see all around her, and she felt tears of joy on her cheeks as she took in the familiar scenery of the valley outside the Kota village.

  “Ha!” she laughed triumphantly.

  The portal collapsed behind her. Then the effects of crossing the void hit. Her vision went black, and she fell to the ground. She lay in the fetal position, hugging her freezing body. Then she blacked out.

  When she came to, she found herself lying on the ground. She saw a rock right in front of her face and at first thought she must’ve hit her head. But there was no headache.

  She sat up and looked down at herself. She thought she looked and felt okay. She wore a big coat, dark pants, and boots. Her long, blond hair was stuck under her collar, and she pulled it loose to flap in the breeze.

  How did I get here? she thought. And…who am I?

  Behind her splashed a waterfall. Its stream ran down the narrow valley where she sat. The valley was almost entirely rock, and only a few short trees fought for survival in patches of sunlight. Above and beyond the waterfall, the mountain rose into a pine forest.

  Then something rustled the foliage by the waterfall.

  She leapt to her feet and backed away, then ran along the stream, out of the valley. She struggled to keep her footing over the uneven, shadowy terrain. Eventually the valley opened onto a beach.

  Suddenly, the blue-gray sky over the waves seemed to rip apart. A dark hole spiraled open to create a huge gap of pure black that hung low over the waves. Then the darkness disappeared and was replaced by an entirely different scene.

  A giant wooden ship now floated where there’d been nothing before. Men lined the sides of the ship, their weapons and shields at the ready. They looked like fierce Vikings of an ancient time.

  She turned to run but fell over a rock, ripping the knee of her pant leg. Paying this no mind, she rolled over in fear to see the ship.

  “Rahhh!” A man heaved a giant spear over the side, aimed right at her.

  She screamed.

  In the span of a blink, the spear, ship, and men vanished. The scene returned to normal sky and sea.

  “What?!” She rose to her feet and wiped sand from her hands.

  She looked both ways along the coast. The shore to the south stretched forever until curving out of sight. To the north, she saw a metal wall that stretched across the beach.

  People, she thought.

  She plodded over the sand to the metal wall and walked along it until she found a gate. Breathing hard, she looked at the palm scanner by the gate and swept her right hand over it. The lock blinked faintly, but the system didn’t seem to be online. In fact, she didn’t hear any electricity humming from the wall at all. Carefully, she reached for the gate and pulled. It wasn’t locked.

  The sound of a falling rock caused her to look inland, but the trees of the rising mountain hid any danger.

  Quickly she made her decision and crossed through the gate, pulling it shut behind her. Trying to summon strength, she turned to see what lay inside.

  A dirt road ran ahead, flanked on either side by wooden buildings that lay in ruins. Some of the smaller huts appeared to have burned. Grass and shrubs grew up where obviously they wouldn’t have if people still lived here. A long building had once been the largest in the whole place, but its roof had collapsed long ago. She saw no one.

  “Hello?” she called with a quiver in her voice.

  Something about this place…

  She felt a pull she didn’t understand but trusted enough to follow. Walking down the main road, she walked through the desolation until she came to a certain hut. There was nothing special about it. It looked like all the others. But she knew it mattered to her.

  She stepped to the partially fallen door and pulled. The wood flaked in her hands with dust and mold, and a chunk fell to the ground. Finally she got it wide enough to enter.

  Immediately once inside, she remembered.

  “Oh!” She put her hand to her mouth in shock and looked around her old home.

  Everything was in a state of ruin. The fire had spread to burn much of the floor, table, and chairs. Her bed had turned to a moldy mess. She started to cry even before she turned to her mother’s bed. Vedin’s corpse was years old.

  Vedanleé turned away, sobbing quietly.

  I’m too late, she thought. I’m way too late. Thurston wasn’t lying after all.

  Once her tears abated enough, she went to the shelves where their belongings were stored. This was a mess too, but she tried to find anything left intact.

  This was my home, she thought. I want something to remember my mother by.

  She pushed aside an old blanket and found a small, leather satchel. This held her mother’s ancient, silver knives. They’d been forged long ago in the mountains when the Kota had thrived in this region, before the DRK. The knives had always been her family’s prized collection, passed down from daughter to daughter.

  Sniffling, Vedanleé took the leather satchel containing the knives, felt their weight, and tucked the satchel into her coat’s inner pocket.

  Shriek!

  Vedanleé whirled around to the door. The noise had come from outside, not far away.

  Time to leave, she thought.

  She hurried back to the door and peeked around the broken wood. She didn’t see any movement along the road running between the huts, so she ducked outside and scampered from cover to cover, aiming in the direction of the village gate.

  She froze, however, when she reached the collapsed feasting hall. People wandered from the back of the building onto the road. Vedanleé’s instincts screamed at her to hide, so she ducked back behind a burned hut to watch the people on the road. Then she saw the state of them.

  Those aren’t people, she thought with a chill. Not anymore.

  Ten of the bodies were female. The other three were male. All were barely clothed. Few had hair left attached to their heads. They were covered in dirt, blood, and the gray fungus of DRK infection.

  Then she saw one of the female factors and recognized the woman’s bone-thin, bloodied face. It was Eartha, a girl she’d grown up with.

  In that moment, as she hid behind the charred hut and watched the factored villagers wander around in their subhuman state, she realized one cold, hard truth.

  I have nowhere else to go, she thought. I never should have left them…

  She stepped out from her hiding place. Immediately four of the factors swiveled their heads in her direction. They cried out terrifying, unhuman shrieks. Then the rest of the herd looked her way. They started running in crazed, wide steps. Vedanleé c
ould see the blood around their mouths, and she prepared herself for the end.

  However, when they were within about ten meters, the lead factor’s head exploded. Vedanleé froze in fresh horror as gunshots rang out from the shore-side of the village. The entire herd of factors shrieked in anger and turned to face their attackers. Vedanleé couldn’t see around the buildings along the shore, but she heard men’s voices cursing and shouting orders to each other as they continued to shoot and mow down the factors.

  Soon, factor corpses littered the road in front of her. Vedanleé stood in place, too numb to run.

  “Clear!” A man shouted as he arrived from the shore. He was huge, dressed in Dominion armor, but with long black hair flowing from his helmet-less head.

  A squad of soldiers rounded the corner and spread over the village, checking that all the factors were down.

  The giant man spotted her still standing and lifted his rifle with a jerk, but then he lowered it. “Vedanleé?”

  Shit, she thought. They’re going to take me right back to Thurston. I’m dead.

  The giant – for that’s what he was, easily standing a head and shoulders taller than any man she’d ever seen – stomped over to her. He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to walk between buildings to the shore. Once on the beach with cover now between them and the factors, he let her go with a thrust. Then he stood with his hands on his hips.

  Vedanleé didn’t care. She let her hair blow and looked around the open beach. Dominion boats were docked in the bay, and more soldiers spread out along the beach to secure the area.

  The giant smelled of sweat and gunpowder. “What the hell were you thinking, coming here? We came as soon as you palm-scanned the gate, but you could’ve been killed!”

  Stupid, she told herself. Your amnesic self led them right here.

  He kept yelling. “No matter how furious the Lord High Commander is with you for leaving, it’d be my head on a spike if I let the factors get you!” He waited for a response, but when she didn’t give him one, he snapped his fingers in her face. “Are you with me? Vedanleé, snap out of it!”