Excerpt: The Shadow Stalker

Chapter 1

Darien was packing as quickly as he could while his wife consoled their infant daughter. They both looked at each other as they heard another explosion in the distance.

“They’re getting closer,” Alaigra said softly, as if they’d hear her if she spoke any louder.

“I know,” Darien told her as he hurried to finish the packing.

“Alexei,” Alaigra called out. “Hurry up, now!”

“I am, Mama,” their young son called back.

Another explosion shook their house.

“I’m ready,” Darien exclaimed. “The transport should be here shortly.”

“Alexei,” Alaigra called out again.

Alexei appeared in the doorway holding a bag in one hand and a small cage in another. “I’m ready, Mama,” he said with tears in his eyes. “Can’t I bring Laddie?”

“Animals aren’t allowed on the transport,” Darien explained to his son. “We can let him loose. He will know how to protect himself.”

Alexei nodded through his sobs while Darien took the cage and led them all outside. The first stars were just appearing in the sky, but disappeared every time the sky lit up with another explosion in the distance. Darien tried to ignore the panic welling up inside of him. The transport should have been there by now. If it didn’t show up, they would never be able to get off the small island before the soldiers of the Divine Empire caught up with them.

He knelt on the ground and lifted the lid on the cage. The little rodent seemed reluctant to leave the safety of his cage, so Darien used a bit of food to coax him out. When that didn’t work he lifted the entire lid off the cage and decided the animal would leave when he was ready.

“He can’t stay there, daddy,” Alexei protested.

“He’ll leave when he realizes it’s not safe to stay there,” he explained to his son, and then noticed a hovercraft approaching them quickly in the distance.

“They’re coming,” Alaigra said, noticeably relieved.

Darien nodded, but he still felt troubled. The transport that was approaching them looked much too small to be the evacuation transport they were expecting. In fact, it didn’t look familiar to him at all. Realization suddenly struck him.

“Get back inside,” he shouted at his family. “Quickly!”

“What’s wrong?” Alaigra asked in a shaken voice.

“That’s not our transport,” he told her quietly so their son wouldn’t hear. “It’s a craft of the Divine Empire.”

“But, how…”

He cut her off giving her a gentle shove. “Get inside quickly,” he told them again.

Alaigra ushered their protesting son back into the house, and then stopped at the door when she realized Darien wasn’t following her.

“What are you doing?” she called out.

“They would have seen someone out here by now,” he explained, “but they wouldn’t have been able to tell how many people they’ve seen. Hide and I will try to distract them.”

Alaigra started toward her husband, “No, you can’t…”

“Hide! Quickly!” he said sternly.

Alaigra shook her head in frustration, but went back into the house with their children to find a place to hide.

Darien picked up his axe and began chopping wood. He didn’t need the wood, but he knew he may need a weapon and that was the only one he had available. It struck him as odd that he would suddenly feel a strange sense of loss over that axe, but it had provided them the wood they needed to stay warm over many winters.

Alaigra’s family thought they were crazy for living such a simplistic life when they had so much technology available to them, but Darien always felt that technology brought more trouble than good. He didn’t mind using it when it was necessary, but he felt that people had become too heavily reliant on it. He didn’t want his children growing up being crippled by their dependence on technology.

His wife had a good point too, though. They couldn’t grow up being completely ignorant to technology either, or they would risk falling prey to those who had mastered it. So he relented and agreed that they would send their children to a school on the main island in the Serpent Isles, so named because the chain of islands take the shape of a serpent, so they would have more exposure to the technology available to them when they were older.

It looked as though it would be a moot point now as their peaceful island fell to the Divine Empire. They were going to be evacuated to the main island of the Liberation Coalition, Appolia, their last haven of safety. If the Divine Empire made their way to Appolia, no one would be safe.

There was a time when all of the people of the Serpent Isles lived as one people, but a religious cult had formed on one of the smaller islands. The cult grew at an alarming rate, but by the time anyone had thought to do something about it, it was too late. The cult had already infiltrated their government and they soon began the process of indoctrinating the entire population. Those who refused to convert were either killed or sent to reconciliation centers, where they would be tortured into submission and then brainwashed into being believers and compliant citizens.

Some people managed to escape capture and formed a rebellion called the Liberation Coalition. The Divine Empire, as they began calling themselves, never anticipated resistance on a large scale, so they were unprepared when a revolt broke out that lead into a long and bloody civil war. After many years of war both sides began to run low on resources and finally a truce was made. The Divine Empire had established a large presence on the Isle of Nadiria, the southern-most island and tail of the Serpent, while the Liberation Coalition had reformed the former government on Appolia and had a large presence on about two thirds of the smaller islands in between the two main islands making up the body of the serpent.

Darien was born at the tail end of the war. He was old enough at the time to remember the celebrations marking the end of the war, but too young to remember much of what happened before that, and no one seemed too interested in talking about it. They all agreed on one thing, though. The Divine Empire had only agreed to a truce while they rebuilt their military and built up their resources. Darien wasn’t sure he believed the Diving Empire would risk another war, but he was pretty sure that if they did it wouldn’t be in his lifetime.

He couldn’t have been more wrong and now he feared his family would end up paying the price. The hovercraft was approaching, but Darien continued to chop wood and pretended not to notice. He heard the whine of the engine as it came closer and closer, until it finally stopped right in front of his house. He waved to the transport in a friendly manner as if it was a neighbor coming for a visit.

“What in the name of the Gods are you doing chopping wood, and where is your family?” Darien heard a familiar voice say as the man climbed out of the hovercraft.

“Kado?” Darien asked cautiously as he approached the transport.

Kado smiled, but his smile quickly faded. “Where is your family, we must leave quickly. The Divine Empire is mere miles from here now.”

“They’re inside. I thought you were… where in the world did you get this thing?” he asked gesturing towards the hovercraft.

“Oh, I ‘borrowed’ it from one of our Divine Empire friends. And I might add he was not too happy about it, so we must leave quickly.”

“Alaigra,” Darien called. “It’s safe!”

Alexei appeared in the doorway first and immediately recognized their visitor. He ran at full speed into Kado’s arms.

“We thought you were one of the bad men,” Alexei whimpered.

Kado chuckled. “It’s not the first time I’ve been mistaken as a bad man, little one,” he said while putting the boy into the hovercraft and strapping him in.

Darien held his daughter while Kado helped Alaigra into their escape vehicle. “We were waiting on a transport, but it hasn’t shown up yet.”

“I know,” Kado said nodding, and then lowered his voice, “the soldiers caught up with it and destroyed it. There were no survivors. They suspect that many Shadow Stalkers lives among these smaller islands so they are killing everyone they find. I was on my way to the Dark Isle when I came across a couple of soldiers investigating the wreckage, looking for survivors no doubt. They were a good distance away so I stole this hovercraft so that I could come for you and your family.”

Darien nodded. He needed no further explanation. He climbed quickly into the hovercraft with Kado right behind him. Kado had been a friend of his since he was a child. Kado the Shadow Stalker was what many people had called him. Darien had no idea what a Shadow Stalker was, but he knew many people feared them.

The people of the Divine Empire considered them to be evil so any Shadow Stalkers that were stranded on their side after the war had ended were more than likely put to death. The Liberation Coalition tolerated them because of their help during the war, but otherwise they were treated with indifference and often shunned.

Even Darien’s grandparents, who had raised him since he was a small boy, had forbidden Darien from seeing Kado, but that never stopped him. And now that he was an adult with a family of his own, Kado had become the best friend his family had ever had. Even his wife had taken to him as if he were a long lost uncle. Now here he was proving his loyalty to their family once again by risking his life to bring them all to safety.

Now that they were on their way to safety, Darien considered Kado’s earlier words about how he had come by the hovercraft so that he could rescue them. If he was on his way to the Dark Isle, he should have been a long way from where the evacuation transport would have been. Kado lived to the north and the Dark Isle was to the northwest, so what was he doing to the south?

He was just about to ask him about it when Kado interrupted him. He had a knack for doing things like that when Darien had important questions to ask.

“How are you holding up back there, Alaigra?” Kado asked, giving Darien a sidelong glance.

Alaigra was cradling her daughter, Vella, in one arm while her other arm comforted Alexei, who was still upset over having to leave his pet behind.

“We’re fine,” she told him. “We’re just glad to be safe.”

Kado smiled, although he knew they were far from safety. The soldiers had already infiltrated several of the smaller islands to the north, so they were well behind enemy lines. The fact that they hadn’t found Darien and his family was nothing short of a miracle. It probably helped that the Trask home blended well into the surrounding environment. It would not be easy to spot from a distance, but they would have been found eventually.

Luckily Kado was quite well aware of where the soldiers were stationed throughout the island. The soldiers expected anyone trying to escape to head north towards Appolia, so they concentrated their patrols in that area. So Kado headed west towards the open sea. He would go out several miles then turn north toward Appolia. It would add several hours on to their trip, but he figured they should reach Appolia by the morning.

“You should get some sleep,” Kado told them.

Darien didn’t think he would be able to sleep, but he suddenly felt a wave of drowsiness overtake him.

His eyes closed and he knew he had fallen asleep, yet he could still see. At first he thought he might be dreaming, but how could he know he was dreaming? (Dream sequence that denotes his coming battle with the Divine Empire showing Darien fighting for the Divine Empire)

Darien came suddenly to full consciousness to find that their transport was surrounded by battle barges. His heart leapt into his throat as it began to dawn on him that his dream was coming true. They were all going to die.

“It’s okay,” Kado told him as he put a reassuring hand on Darien’s shoulder. “It’s the Coalition. They’re going to take your family the rest of the way to Appolia.”

Their transport jolted as the boarding platform on the barge began rising.

“What about me?”

Kado gave him a dark look, “You will be put into service to fight with the Coalition. They are recruiting every man capable of fighting.”

“No!” came Alaigra’s voice as softly as she could be in her sudden panic as not to upset her sleeping children. “They can’t do that!”

“They can,” Kado told her.

“I’m no soldier, Kado. I can’t fight.”

“You seemed ready to fight with your axe yesterday,” Kado reminded him.

Darien shook his head and took Alaigra’s hand as she began sobbing.

“There is another way,” Kado offered.

“Another way? What do you mean?” Darien asked.

“Please step out of the transport!”

Darien suddenly noticed the soldiers surrounding their transport.

“We’re in a vehicle from the Divine Empire. They still don’t trust we are who we say we are,” Kado explained. “It’s best if we just do as we’re told for now.”

Darien climbed slowly out of the vehicle making sure the soldiers could see his empty hands. Then he helped his wife and groggy son out of the transport. When Alexei saw the soldiers, he quickly hid behind his father and began sobbing.

One of the soldiers stepped forward. “You are free to leave, Shadow Stalker. You’re needed by your people on the Dark Isle,” he told Kado then turned to Darien, “Your family will be taken to safety. You will need to come with us.”

“No!” Kado told the soldier. “He’ll be coming with me.”

“You have no jurisdiction here, Shadow Stalker,” the soldier scowled.

“I do when it concerns one of my kind.” Kado told him in an even tone.

Darien looked at Kado as if the man had lost his mind. He was no Shadow Stalker. Maybe this was Kado’s way of getting Darien out of having to go to war, but he couldn’t understand why he’d do such a thing. He knew that fighting this war was crucial to the survival of their people.

The soldier looked at Darien and scoffed. “This man is no Shadow Stalker.”

“His name is Darien Trask. His father was Zain the Aforfamar,” Kado let the name sink into the soldier’s memory before continuing. “He is a Shadow Stalker and like you, we need every man we can get.”

Darien noticed that the man suddenly looked a few shades lighter. He obviously recognized the name, but Darien had no idea who he was talking about. His father was… he suddenly realized he never knew his father’s name. How could he not know his own father’s name?

“You may both go,” the soldier told them. “We will make sure your family reaches Appolia in safety, Darien Trask.”

Darien nodded to the man. He suddenly felt dizzy with everything happening so fast. He had not intended on leaving his family, but it seemed that he had no choice now. He had to either enlist himself as a soldier in the Liberation Coalition or go with Kado to the Dark Isle. Maybe Kado would find a way to get him back to his family, he told himself, but somehow he felt that he was going to end up tangled in this war whether he wanted to be or not.

It wasn’t that he was afraid to fight. He would fight with his life to protect his family. He only feared what would happen to them if the Divine Empire managed to fight their way to Appolia. Who would be there to protect his family then if he wasn’t there? Alaigra would have her family with her, but her father was old and she had no brothers. Even if she did, it wouldn’t matter. They would have been sent off to war.

Darien suddenly realized his son was hugging his leg tightly and begging him not to leave. He lifted his son into his arms and hugged him tightly. After his sobbing subsided he held him out a little so that he was looking directly into his son’s eyes.

“You have to be brave now.” Darien told him holding back his own tears. “I will be okay. I will have Kado to protect me. You’re going to have to look after your mother and sister for me, okay?”

Alexei nodded. “I will, daddy.”

Darien set his son down and wrapped his arms around Alaigra. “I love you so much,” he told her.

“I love you too,” she whispered back.

“We must get moving,” the Soldier told them.

Kado clapped Darien on the shoulder. “I promise I will keep him safe. He will return to you soon,” he promised.

Alaigra nodded and she hugged Kado. “You stay safe too,” she told him.

Darien kissed his daughter who was still sleeping in her mother’s arms.

“Let’s go,” Kado whispered in his ear, and then climbed back into the transport.

Darien nodded and climbed in the other side the other side of the transport. The platform was lowering before he had the chance to strap himself into the seat. His family was already being ushered away by the soldiers. He suddenly felt a lump rising in his throat as he wondered if this would be the last time he ever saw them.