Siren's Reach - Fallen Lands Book 3

Chapter Thirty-Two

The Mourning Tide

Alice

The air reeked of death and salt. Acrid smoke clung to Alice's clothes, thick with the greasy stench of burning flesh, human and otherwise. It was fish market rot and battlefield carnage, all baked in the sun and set ablaze. She could taste it in the back of her throat long after the fires died down.

Once she'd gotten Caeda to the safety of the Inn, she'd joined in trying to help defend it. At first, she was healing the guards fighting off the monsters. The more they fought, the more of the monsters came to investigate, drawn in by the commotion. If the song could be heard, they'd come in organized waves, but even with it sputtering out and breaking often, there was no end to the fighting, only a difference in how organized their enemies were.

The creatures came in so many different shapes and sizes, from the common sea goblins to nameless tentacled horrors that no one had ever heard of before. It had been all that she could do to try and keep the people around her alive – And she really needed to do that. Without the soldiers, she'd be dead, and Caeda would quickly follow her. They were fighting sea monsters, after all, and all of her magic was just manipulating water and healing. What could she possibly do to them?

Or, at least, that was what she'd thought at first. Suddenly, that massive squid pulled itself over the cliff wall and shot a pressurized beam of water straight at their group. Her water shield had blunted the force of it, turning what would have been an instantly fatal blow for two of the guards into injuries she could heal—but it hadn't protected the monsters they'd been fighting at all. The blast had shredded them into so much meat.

That was when it finally clicked in her head. The rules she'd expected from video game logic didn't apply. A high-pressure beam of water, magically created or not, was still a high-pressure beam of water. That pressure is what did the damage – the water was just the medium. Sure, it'd probably hurt something weak to water more, but those creatures wouldn't have those attacks if they couldn't use them underwater to defend and attack.

When she retaliated by creating a massive [Whirlpool], it didn't drown her enemies. It didn't do magical "water" damage. It threw them into a blender made of water and everything else nearby. The squid-thing didn't fit inside the whirlpool, but that didn't stop its tentacles from getting caught up and shredded or its body from being hurled around and slammed into and through several stone buildings.

Attacking was far more taxing than healing, but it let her intervene where no one else could, and it likely saved more than a few lives. It didn't save them all. She'd only been level five when this all started. More than once, she'd had to stop and recover mana, or her spells had been too weak to protect someone from a powerful attack. She'd been forced to watch several people trying to flee to the safety of the inn, only to be ruthlessly slaughtered by the monsters prowling the town. She still couldn't shake the image of a young mother, running with her children in her arms, dragged down and torn apart, trying to push her screaming children away to safety until the moment her eyes glossed over.

Alice had never felt so angry, so helpless, and so betrayed in her entire life as in that one moment. She thought they'd be safe once they found Evelyn, and now she'd run off and left them to deal with this. She'd left them with Sibylla, who'd ditched them in a dungeon and disappeared! Alice had to watch scenes like that play out over and over, and she could do nothing. Where were the others?

When the monsters finally stopped coming, when that horrible song finally ended for good, she'd thought it was over, but the screams throughout the town as people fought for their lives, as families were ambushed in their own homes, hadn't ended. So many had taken shelter in the inn that they couldn't abandon them there to go help the others, and yet, they couldn't just stay. When a group had split off to try clearing the town, she'd gone with them.

With the ridiculous number of monsters they'd known had come over the cliff, they had expected to find a lot more destruction in the town. There were dead guards and civilians, and some of the homes and businesses were destroyed, but not enough to account for everything that had gotten into the town. It just made Alice think of the monster they'd run into outside the town.

And then Alice found Sibylla. Not fighting or doing anything useful. She'd found her standing next to a cauldron, Washing Her Hair. The entire crew she'd been walking with froze in confusion at the bizarre sight, but not Alice. She didn't even wait for Sibylla to finish wringing her hair out before approaching.

Stomping directly to her, Alice's fury only grew as she heard Sibylla's muttered diatribe about how much she hated salt water of all things. As if that mattered! When she came to a stop in front of the fox girl, Sibylla looked up at her in surprise. Alice didn't hesitate at all. Her fist slammed straight into Sibylla's jaw, knocking her to the ground. She hadn't even tried to resist.

Sibylla barely had time to look surprised before Alice was on her again, standing over her as she hit the ground.

"What the hell is wrong with you?!" Alice shouted, her voice trembling as fury boiled just beneath the surface. "You dragged us into that damn dungeon and vanished. Left us to figure it out on our own without so much as a hint! No warning, no explanation, nothin'!" She took a shaky breath, hands clenched at her sides. "And when we finally get out, you're gone again! You didn't even stick around to check on us! We were attacked on the road! Our driver got eaten, and then the town was under siege!" Her voice cracked. "People died, Sibylla! I had to carry Caeda into that inn and pray she wasn't gonna die from some magic I didn't understand. And where were you?!"

Her eyes burned, but Sibylla only stared back at her, slowly raising a hand to where Alice's fist had struck her, as if she didn't understand. That only made Alice more furious. She gestured at the cauldron behind her.

"Washing your hair?!" she spat. "Was that the priority? Not the monsters? Not the people screaming and dying in the streets?!" She stepped back, shaking her head. "You're just like Amélie. Just as selfish, just as unreliable—only at least Amélie doesn't pretend to be anything else." Her voice dropped into something low and hurt. "I trusted you." They stared at each other for several seconds in silence. The weight of everything Alice had carried since that dungeon, since the slaughter in the town, sat heavy in the silence. "I trusted you," she said again, softer now, "and you left us."

Sibylla never answered her. She only stared back in confusion that sank into pain and regret. The cauldron disappeared, and a moment later, Sibylla did as well. She flashed into a fox and was out of sight within seconds.

The whole situation had left Alice feeling disgusted and disappointed. Was this really all these supposed [Heroes] were worth? What was she doing, wasting her time trying to find them? The rest of the guards moved on, and she followed them around the corner, lost in thought, only to slam face-first into the man ahead of her.

When she looked up to see what was going on, she understood the sudden stop. Before them was a scene out of a nightmare painted in gore, like a horror movie no one ever called "cut" on. Monster corpses were scattered and piled everywhere. The streets were smeared with blood. Clawed limbs, shattered carapace, spongy organs, and scaled tentacles littered the ground, hung from trees, and off the sides of buildings. A creature so large she had no idea how it'd even gotten into the town lay splattered and half-melted along the town wall just behind the orphanage. The Orphanage, which had not a scratch on its paint and was packed to the rafters with survivors who'd been fleeing the carnage.

Alice froze. Her breath caught as her mind tried to catch up with what her eyes were seeing. The blood was still wet in places, and some of the monster parts were still twitching. The air was thick with the coppery stink of death, salt, and scorched flesh. She barely heard the guards muttering behind her and didn't notice one of them gagging into the bushes. Her feet carried her forward slowly, unthinking, as she stared at the carnage.

A twitch of movement caught her eye, something wriggling on a broken lamppost, until she realized it was a severed limb impaled through the metal like a macabre flag. Just beneath it, a half-melted creature's body still steamed, its flesh warped like it had been hit with acid and lightning at once.

She'd shaken her head, her focus stopping on the orphanage. It hadn't been her imagination. It was completely untouched. Not a single splatter of blood or broken window. A little girl stood behind the glass, holding a stuffed animal, wide-eyed but alive. Dozens of others were behind her. All of them were alive. Unlike at the inn, there were no human bodies mixed in. She'd gotten them all inside alive.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Alice's mouth opened, but no words came out. She heard her voice in her head, just minutes ago: "Was that the priority?" Her throat tightened.

"Aw, hell."

The weight of her accusation hit her like a blow to the chest. She'd been raging inside, her mind so made up about everything. And all the while, Sibylla had been here. Knee-deep in blood. Fighting monsters more than twice her size. Protecting a building full of children. And she'd been doing it alone. Alice didn't even realize she'd started shaking until a guard touched her arm.

"You alright, miss?"

She nodded numbly. "Yeah. I just need a second." She turned her face away, blinking fast. "Damn it, Sibylla..."

She'd been so angry. But Sibylla hadn't abandoned anyone. She'd just never said a word about what she'd done. It wasn't until after sunrise that word came from the few survivors still barricaded inside the seawall fortifications: Sibylla had been the one to fight off the siren spawn in the harbor. The same creatures that had been controlling the other monsters and ensorcelling the minds of the townsfolk.

Now, hours after their encounter, she stood among the remnants of the pyres, the ashes long cooled. Alice had spent the entire night healing the wounded, pausing only to recover her mana and help carry more bodies to the flames. She couldn't even bring herself to begrudge Sibylla for not being there to help with that cleanup. It had been a grim, exhausting task. Every corpse, human and monster alike, had to be burned quickly, just to make sure they didn't rise again. It was yet another way this world felt so different from her own.

The Inn had been used to treat the wounded and as a general gathering place for anyone who needed help. Because of this, Alice was present when Caeda and several others had eventually awoken. The magical slumber had been a status condition with no lingering effects, but that didn't stop Alice from checking her friend over a dozen times. The moment Caeda had opened her eyes and understood what was going on, though, she was ready to help.

Now, Caeda was just as exhausted as Alice from the seemingly endless work. They were both ready to find somewhere to sleep. Of course, Alice knew she couldn't do that just yet. At some point early in the morning, Sibylla had returned. She'd been avoiding Alice, but word had made it back to her about who had shown up and created the alchemical solutions they used to keep the pyres burning with far less wood than they'd otherwise need. She'd also done something to help mend the lifts down to the docks so the injured could be brought back up more easily. And then, she'd stayed down near the water to help, as far away from Alice as possible.

"You sure it's safe to go after her?" Caeda asked, seeing Alice's intent.

"Safe or not, don't make a difference. This ain't somethin' that's gonna fix itself. I gotta go make it right."

This wasn't the first time that it had come up. Caeda's reminder that Sibylla was likely very high level was a reality check that Alice wasn't happy to receive. Still, it wasn't as intimidating to her as it was to Caeda. Avoiding high level enemies in a video game didn't really translate very well to dealing with high level people in real life. And even if Sibylla was strong enough to be as intimidating as Caeda thought she was, that didn't mean she would intentionally hurt Alice. If she were going to do that, she likely would have already.

"You can stay here if you want, but I'm goin' to find her."

Alice only made it two steps before Caeda was beside her. "As if I'd stay behind. I'll just stand back and let you two talk, and I'll carry you back up to a healer if need be."

"Yeah. Thanks for the vote of confidence," Alice answered with a snort. "I'll be fine."

Despite her words, Alice didn't rush down to the docks. Avoiding the short line at the lift, she started meandering down the long switchbacks. She wasn't avoiding the conversation. She just needed some time to work out her thoughts. What she'd said about Sibylla abandoning them was wrong and unfair. She was still a little angry about the dungeon, but at least she understood that. But as for being angry that she left before they were finished or accusing her of not helping the town in need, well, that was entirely off base.

Caeda interrupted her looping thoughts, "Maybe if you talk about whatever is cooking your brain in there, we can sort it out."

Alice snorted, "Yeah. Maybe." She sighed, and it was a few seconds before she decided to take her friend's advice. "I know I shouldn't've hit her. And it wasn't fair, accusin' her like that. That ain't like me. And the more I think about why I did it, the more it just sounds like I'm tryin' to make excuses. I was just… so damn angry."

Caeda nodded, "I was a little upset, too. It was hard to go through all of that and then find her doing something so random."

"See? That's what I mean." Alice shook her head and gave her friend a sad smile. "Sure, it was hard, but that's just an excuse. It was the wrong way to handle it. I should've at least talked to her first… made sure she actually deserved gettin' punched."

Understanding that Alice really needed someone to listen more than to talk to, Caeda just nodded and said, "Yeah, I get it."

Alice let out a defeated sigh, "I don't even know how to apologize after somethin' like that. What am I supposed to do—just walk up and say, 'Hey Sibylla, sorry for snappin' at you, chewin' you out, and then punchin' you in the face even though you were doin' more for the town than I could've ever hoped to?'"

"Yeah. That'll do. I would have also accepted a kitten and some chocolate as a makeup gift… but I guess you were right about the dungeon. I should have probably talked to you about it a little more instead of letting myself be so distracted. I'm sorry."

Alice nearly jumped out of her skin as the shadows parted to reveal Sibylla walking on her other side. "Good Lord, don't sneak up on people like that! I nearly died!" She half-turned, face burning, "You always lurk in shadows waitin' for folks to embarrass themselves, or is this just my lucky day?"

Sibylla gave a half shrug, "A bit of both. I was having a little trouble trying to figure out how to deal with this situation, too, so I'm just glad you wanted to talk."

"Look, Sibylla.." Alice began, but Sibylla cut her off.

"I'm not mad at you." When Alice stared at her in confusion, she went on, "I know you've been going through a lot without a moment to stop and breathe. And I know you didn't mean it. Also, you punch like a level five mage, which helped."

Alice scoffed and was about to reply, but Sibylla held up a hand for her to wait.

"Sorry. I shouldn't joke about it. You two have been on the run together, and you had a bit of a rude welcome with what Amélie did. I think we may all need to sit down and talk about that. But you need to understand a few things, too."

Alice nodded, waiting for her to go on, and Sibylla smiled thankfully and continued.

"I know what happened to you when you were summoned. The same thing happened to me, only I ended up in the spirit realm. But Evelyn and Amélie have been here in this world the entire time. They've been doing things that I'd hate to imagine, and I had my aunt drop me into a dreamroach nest when I wasn't taking my stealth training seriously enough…. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, this is practically a vacation for them. And eventually, we'll all be back into that mess."

Alice let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. "Well, that… actually makes a hell of a lot more sense than anything I was thinkin'. Still doesn't make me feel great about punchin' you, but I guess you've had worse… But a dreamroach nest? Seriously? I don't even wanna know what that is."

Sibylla shuddered, "No, probably not. But that isn't my point. My point is what you said about Amélie. What she did was… well, it was stupid. She teases us like that all the time, but she didn't know you very well, and that wasn't exactly a great way to fix that. But stupid as she can be, calling her unreliable is very unfair."

Alice's hands clenched before she visibly calmed herself, "How'm I supposed to know when someone like that's bein' honest or just playin' games? I don't think you and I got the same definition of 'reliable.'"

Sibylla nodded, "That's a valid point. But I can give you a very simple guide to Amélie. If she's talking about anything to do with relationships, flirting, or attraction, she's about to lead you down the scenic route to nonsense. But any time something really matters, any time you really need help, she's going to be the first one to step forward and stand beside you. Like, for instance, when you're about to be kidnapped by pirates and sold into slavery. Don't forget how you ended up at her side in the first place."

Alice's mouth twisted like she wanted to argue, but couldn't quite find the footing. "Yeah... I remember." She deflated, just a little. "Doesn't mean I ain't still mad about how she handled it. But I guess... maybe she did come through in the ways that counted." They walked in silence for a few seconds before Alice huffed in annoyance. "You think she does all that on purpose? The teasing and the games? Just so people don't notice how much she's actually doin'?"

"She um," Caeda started before stopping and taking a deep breath. "Well, I think that is part of it. Remember when I went to talk to her on the ship to feel her out?"

Alice nodded, "Yeah, I remember you bein' real worried about her motives back then… though now that I think about it, you never really brought it up again after."

"Yeah. About that. I was blunt about my concerns, about how we knew she was a noble and how she was letting you rack up a debt with her. She offered me a chance to pay that entire debt right then and there. I didn't know exactly what she was going to ask for, but I agreed."

"You what?!" Alice started, but Caeda raised her hands in a calming motion.

"I was willing to do whatever it took to make up for everything you'd done for me. But what she asked for was simple. She said I wasn't allowed to question her motives or repeat anything she said that day until after you met Evelyn… and then she told me exactly who she was. She told me a lot of really, really sad things about Evelyn. And then she told me exactly why she was doing things. She said she thought an awkward introduction between the two of you might help you relate better when you turned your ire on her together, and give the two of you something to bond over. She really wanted Evelyn to have a friend from back home that she could talk to, something about it being more comfortable to talk to a friend who wouldn't judge her or have the same expectations her family might have… and that you might appreciate having someone to confide in, too."

At some point in her explanation, Alice and Sibylla had stopped walking, and by the time she was done speaking, they were both just staring at her. After a few seconds, Sibylla snorted, then laughed as she turned to continue walking.

Alice didn't seem nearly as amused, but silently turned to follow her. When they caught up and were walking together again, Sibylla broke the silence.

"I bet she never thought all of her machinations would be interrupted by this stupid war."

"I'm glad you're gettin' some entertainment outta this." Alice sighed. "She's a whole mess, that one. I can't believe I spent all this time thinkin' she was just messin' with me for fun." Her tone softened, more confused than angry now. "I don't even know what to think about her anymore. Don't much matter if she was playin' matchmaker or therapist." She looked up at the sky like she expected it to offer answers, then glanced sidelong at Sibylla. "Between the two of you, I ain't got the slightest clue what kinda madness I'm walkin' into with Evelyn."

Sibylla shook her head, "I'm more worried about what Evelyn is walking into when she gets back. She's going to blame herself for this whole mess. I should probably head up to the tower before she gets back. She'll almost certainly stop there first, and it might be for the best to warn her about what she's walking into so she doesn't have a heart attack."

Caeda raised an eyebrow, "That's kind of a long walk. When is she coming back? Are you sure you can even make it to the tower before her?"

As if on cue, a familiar chime rang out, and all three of them instinctively checked their notifications.

War Alert: The Estate of Ironwood Hollow has been conquered by Lady Evelyn of Siren's Reach!

War Alert: Siren's Reach is victorious by means of Total Conquest. The war has been resolved.

Sibylla picked up her pace, "It's a fair bet that she's coming back soon. But I think I'll make it."

Alice jogged a few steps to catch up. "We oughta go with you. Ain't much left for us to do here, and we still need a place to sleep."

Sibylla nodded, "Alright then. Well, it just so happens that I recently and entirely legitimately came into possession of quite a few very fine riding horses." She gave Alice a sidelong look. "If you're up for it."