Westhaven by Rowan Erlking (best sci fi novels of all time TXT) 📕

He tossed a thin chain noose with a bell on each end around Key’s neck. It jingled as it landed, hanging there.

“I’m not a demon,” Key said, and lifted the chain from his neck without any difficulty. He glanced back at the magician with exhaustion.

The magician sighed as he reached out for the chain. “Well, that’s good news.”

“But why did they let you go?” the other man asked.

The smith watched, waiting as Key drew in a labored breath and leaned on him.

Nodding, Key placed the demon-catching chain back in the magician’s palm. “They want me to negotiate for them.”

“What?” several exclaimed as Key continued to nod, blinking to himself as if he even thought it was crazy.

“Yeah,” Key murmured. “They think our leader might listen if I explained what they wanted.”

With an escorting wave, the magician led Key up the hill. “Then let’s go. I’m curious to know that they want.”

The others followed, though a good number still kept their distance as if unsure the boy really wasn’t still a demon in disguise. They took him into the longhouse where the leader was waiting for him already. Key staggered into the long hall and looked up at their camp leader. Almost immediately Key related all that the Cordrils had said to him in the cave. Then explained his own feelings on the matter.

“I think…maybe we can use them,” Key said finally.

Their leader tilted his head with a skeptical frown. The others likewise looked at Key as if he was still not thinking clearly.

Glancing to the back door as if looking to see if the Cordrils had followed him, Key continued. “I’m not saying we ought to trust them entirely, but they want to kill Sky Children, and we also want those blue-eyes dead. All we got to do is sneak those white demons into Herra and then let them do the rest.”

“And then what?” the leader asked, waiting for the catch

Shrugging, Key looked to the ceiling as if it had answers. “I don’t know. They go on their way?”

“Do you really think that is going to happen?” the leader asked him. His skepticism was clear. 

Key shrugged again, feeling just too tired. “I don’t know, but I think we’d better let them do what they want. They seem quite bent on it, and I don’t know how to…how to deal with them. We weren’t able to fight them off before. If we don’t help them, they might use force. And then what?”

“They might use force?” the leader echoed with looks to the others in the room.

“Wait.” The magician lifted a hand. “Let’s play along with this. We don’t know anything about these demons except what they told Key. For all we know what they have said are lies, except that they do hate the other blue-eyes. I suggest we help them with this one thing, and observe them. Then maybe we can get an up close idea of how to defeat not only them, but also the Sky Children.”

The men in the room nodded.

Key squirmed. There was something dark about how the magician had said that, something uncomfortable. The voice of his father echoed in the back of his head that it was unwise to double-cross someone once a pact had been made. It didn’t feel honorable.

“So,” their leader raised his voice to the entire room. “Do we even have a way we can use to sneak a demon into Herra Town?”

“The blue-eyes check all the carts,” one man said.

“Not all of them.” Kleston walked into the long house to where the leaders of the camp were discussing the issue. He wrapped an arm around Key and smiled as he loosened the collar to his coat. “They don’t inspect the carts carrying the dead.”

The men stared at him, but he peered into Key’s face, checking his eyes as worry flickered across his own.

“Are you ok, kid?” Kleston whispered.

Key nodded, but he also sighed. “I’m just tired.”

“But those are the dead going out of the town. Not going in,” the magician said grimly. “The coffins have to be empty going in.”

Kleston nodded. “I know. But, if we carried a stack of empty coffins in to Barnid, filled them with flowers and all that for a funeral procession, we can make those demons wear funeral shrouds and walk with the procession.”

“But that is for only wealthy families,” someone said.

Nodding to him, Kleston smiled. “Well, it just so happens that a wealthy family recently had a death. And I can predict that they’re will be more deaths this week.”

“How come?” the leader asked.

Key also looked up at him, puzzled.

Grinning wider, Kleston said, “Because that man killed for money.”

“Night stalkers,” someone murmured, drawing in a breath.

Others gasped.

Kleston nodded. “That’s right. But we don’t have to worry. As long as we aren’t greedy, they won’t touch us.”

“How do you know the man killed for money?” Key asked him.

Smirking, Kleston grinned. “I’ve been working on this guy for some time. He’s a traitor that has been conspiring with those blue-eyes for favors. A real scumbag. He even used to be a rebel.”

“Welter?” their leader asked, imediately looking interested.

Kleston nodded, grinning wider. “You got it.”

“But how did you—?”

Lifting his hand, Kleston replied, “Get him to let his greed take over?”

He chuckled, though Key didn’t like this side of him. He wondered if Kleston would think of him as a traitor for helping the Cordrils.

“That is a trade secret,” Kleston said and nodded also to Key. “The point is: we use those demons that hate the blue-eyes to clean up this city. Then we’ll see about negotiation for another joint effort.”

Several of the men murmured. One cleared his throat and spoke up. “Joint effort? Kleston, are you actually planning to work with demons? Have you been possessed?”

Shaking his head, Kleston then sighed. “No. I’m not possessed. You can double check with the demon chain if you like. I’ve just been listening in on the blue-eyes’ military dispatches, and I’ve learned that these Cordrils only attack blue-eyes. The Sky Children are beside themselves, shooting first and burning the dead later. I think an alliance, even for a brief while would be beneficial for the both of us.”

Their leader sighed. He then looked at Key. “You heard Kleston. What do you think?”

It wasn’t the first time their leader had asked Key’s opinion, though the events when he had were rare. Key bit his lip, glanced over the faces in the room and shrugged. “I’ll agree with whatever you say. If Kleston thinks working with them is not so risky, I’ll go along with it. But…just be careful.”

“You’re not coming along?” Kleston smirked, knowing the boy’s answer already.

Making a face, Key walked backward from the group. “I’ll negotiate with the Cordrils if I have to. I have to signal to them that you agreed anyway. They’re hiding somewhere over that hill. But, I’m not going into that town. I can’t—”

“I know,” Kleston said, patting him on the head as Key tried to duck out of it. “You can’t let the blue-eyes see you.”

Nodding, Key walked the rest of the way to the far door. He turned then walked out. Taking from under his coat, he lifted up a carved whistle made from a fanger’s tooth. He blew on it.

In the distance, even as the men in the longhouse came out after him, the five blue-eyed white demons climbed over the hill, meeting the guards with the hand signals for peace. Key wondered as he watched them if this was not a bad idea.

Though he had heard the plan from the beginning to the end, Key could not dsipel the sick feeling in his stomach. The men and Cordrils talked seriously in the longhouse for a while, Kleston keeping his keen eyes on the white demons as he laid out the strategy he had devised. Lesar listened and nodded, making suggestions to Kleston along the way. The pair of them chatted as if they had been conspirators together for a long time. And when they had gone to put the plan into action and Key had returned to the smithy, he that sick feeling remained. He hammered his steel to keep his nerves straight.

The night had fallen. The men were chatting as they changed guards around the camp and gathered to eat around the fire. Key sat with the men who had returned from guard duty. Mostly, he kept his eyes on his bread and stewed meat. He slowly chewed. The conversation had already led to their next plans to sneak the Cordrils into the walled city the Sky Children were constructing along the train route between Herra and Tobi. They had even brought in a witch from another camp that was making all kinds of suggestions for future attacks. The witch was a local Herra man. The moment he arrived, he had pried Key for information about the Cordrils. Currently, they were all waiting for news of the raid.  

“Kleston!” someone from their group called out. He stood up when they saw the man descend into the hollow. “How was it?”

Key hopped up, running over to Kleston also. “How did it go?”

Wrapping his arm around Key’s shoulder, Kleston walked him back to the cook fire where it was warm. He took a seat on the log where Key had been sitting, handing Key back his bowl and reaching for another. “So far, so good. Though, those Cordrils are really impulsive, and indiscreet. They don’t know anything about subterfuge. I’m surprised they don’t draw more attention to themselves. You could teach them a thing or two about sneaking, Key.”

Kleston was grinning though. His confidence eased Key’s fears a bit.

“I have them hiding right now,” Kleston said. “The Night Stalkers have already shown up and are doing their work, but that can only last so long. I told that Yadis that he’d better do his killing sneaky-like and not just charge in. The guy is a complete klutz when it comes to subtlety.”

“But he’s the strongest of them,” Key said with a snort.

Nodding, Kelston smiled. “Yeah. But brains always outdoes brawn.”

That reminded Key of the general’s saying that technology always defeated magic.

Stabbing a stick into the fire, Kelston took up the stew ladle, lifting his bowl to collect food. “The good thing is they listen. And for the next week, we’ll be waiting to see how far they go with their plan to kill off those Sky Children. One of those demons in the midst of our enemy is incredibly useful.”

“Yeah, but the Cordrils don’t have guns,” one of the men said. “One shot from a gun and that demon is dead.”

Kleston shrugged as if to say that it wasn’t his fault if the Cordrils got themselves killed.

Key had been staring at Kleston. There was something in the man’s eyes that said he wanted to do more work with the Cordrils, but that he also though the Cordrils were really impetuous. In a way it was like watching those Sky Children lighting firecrackers in the streets of Roan during their festivals. They knew what they were playing with was dangerous, but the excitement of watching those little tubes catch fire and explode drove them to take the risk.

Rising, Key took his bowl over