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

It was a simple operation. Sadena sent a thick fog into Wingsley on the night of the new moon. And she maintained it as the crew pulled in a cart to carry the weaponry they were going to steal along with the documents they truly wanted. It had to look like a simple raid. The evidence of their true purpose had to be destroyed. This is why they brought the two witches with them—to set the military post on fire the moment they were finished.

As the townspeople fled indoors to get out of the bad weather, Sadena had the fog part for their crew. It was perfect cover. So much that they easily walked through the town to the military post.

They sent Edman in first to knock out the guards with his usual salve and spell. Then the crew went in straight to their specific tasks; some stealing weapons as the rest took the documents. Key led the second group.

“Ok,” Key waved to the walls as he walked to the first filing cabinet. “Take all the maps. Anything and everything off of the desks, including the pens and ink. We’ll need those. If there are any seals or stamps, take those also.”

Tiler set an empty sack on the desk, gathering all those things, including the letter opener, the spinning address file, and the abacus. 

Pulling the aluminum filing cabinet open, Key uncovered a plethora of documentse, all meticulously labeled, including files on suspicious humans, locations, and businesses. Sticking his arms in, Key drew out every file and set them on the top of the desk near Weston.

“What about the books?” Polen put his hand on the shelf that contained about twelve books total.

Giving a nod, Key hefted out more files, handing them to Weston who had a bag. “Take them. They probably have military philosophies or perhaps codes of conduct. We need to know everything about them.”

“You don’t already?” Polen asked with a smirk. He lifting off the first three heavy volumes from the shelf.

Key cast him a dry look, then shook his head.

The Herra boys laughed. They enjoyed teasing Key when he was being so serious. The fact that he was serious a lot was one of the reasons they did it so much.

Edman and the other witch joined them in the office then looked around. Approaching Key, Edman nodded. “We are going to start the fire in the arsenal now. They’re nearly cleared there.”

Key nodded back, heaving up another stack.

Looking around, Edman asked, “How long will it take you to clear this out?”

Shrugging, Key said, “Ten more minutes?”

Giving a nod, Edman said, “I’ll go strip the sleeping soldiers. You said they probably carry identification cards on them, right? You said we need those.”

Key emptied out the last of the drawer then shut it, opening another one. This one was just as full. “You do that. We could use their uniforms also.”

The Herra witch gave a nod. “I’ll be in the arsenal.”

“Ok, just make sure that fire does not reach the other houses,” Key said, heaving out the next load and handing them to Weston who had nearly filled one of their large sacks.

“I’ve drenched their walls,” Sadena said. She had been standing in the doorway keeping watch. “If they catch fire, it won’t be my fault.”

“This is where I wish the magician had not turned against us,” Tiler murmured, heaving up a large appointment book into his pack. “He could have put up a fire ward.”

“If only, if only,” Weston snapped back, sticking his arms into a new sack to make space for the next file pile. “A magician’s pride is his downfall, my dad always says.”

“This is a lot of paper things,” Sadena murmured, peering at it. “Are you sure taking all this is necessary? Aren’t you concerned at all about drawing that general here to scour our mountains for our people? This raid will be awfully suspicious.”

Setting down his stack on the table for Weston to take, as Weston struggled with the pile Key had already handed him, Key said, “You cleared your camp didn’t you?”

She narrowed her eyes into a disgusted glare at him. “You are too sassy, boy. Of course I took care of it. But what about the people here that will harassed because of what we are doing.”

“You mean to say,” Key set the final stack down and closed that drawer. He opened the final one. “That I should feel guilty for anything that the general does because of something I am doing now?”

She nodded.

Pausing before sticking his hands into the full drawer, Key replied, “You mean as in what happened in Foreston?”

Her gaze fixed on him, and her nod was more deliberate. “That village burned down because of you.”

“Do you mean the fire that started in the smithy or because I ran off and the general was angry?” Key asked, heaving up a stack.

Weston stood with open arms, waiting.

“You were the wizard there, weren’t you? You made that lightening storm.”

“That’s right,” she said. “And I regret my actions since then. I caused part of that fire also. The deaths of innocents are on my hands, as are on yours. That is why I have kept out of battles with the blue-eyes since then.”

Handing off the stack, Key reseted his hands on his hips. “Innocents still die no matter what we do.”

“More will die, Key, if we continue to interfere in the blue-eyes dealings,” she said.

He glared at her. “Then what are you doing here if you think that way?”

Tilting her head, Sadena said, “I want to know if you can handle the guilt that will come when the death of so many innocents will be on your head. Will the weight of it crush you?”

Reaching his hands into the bottom drawer, Key took out a thick stack and shoved it all into Weston’s open arms. “Sitting around and doing nothing as villages are being burned down around me is much, much worse. Give me liberty or give me death! That’s why I fight!”

“You may get death,” she said, folding her arms across her chest.

“That’s a strange philosophy,” Weston said, stuffing the files into his third bag. “Give me Liberty or give me death. Are there any other options?”

“What it means is that slavery isn’t an option,” Tiler said, heaving his load off of the desk. “I’m done. I’ll take these back to the cart.”

Key nodded to him.

Tiler walked out, passing Sadena with an annoyed look on his face as if to tell her she was acting like a jerk. When he was gone, Sadena continued to lean against the doorjamb. She maintained one eye on the outside fog and the other on Key who continued to unload the file.

“So you don’t care about the casualties that you will cause?” she asked.

Weston shot her a glare, opening his mouth to retort. However, Key spoke ahead of him.

“Care?” Key dug in for the last stack. “Of course I care. But it is worse sitting around doing nothing.”

“There would be less casualties,” she said.

Key kicked the drawer closed. It slammed shut with a bang.

Every head turned to look.

He stood, clenching the file to his chest. “No. There won’t be. What do you think? That those people who are under the Sky Children’s heel are safe? Have you ever been under their feet? Have they ever ground you into the earth with their heels?”

She drew her body up. Her eyes went just a little wider.

“The slaves are like the walking dead,” Key said. He stuffed his papers into the open sack Weston had. “I was one of them.

“Each day I dreamed of walking free. Each day I hoped for the time when my mother, cousins, and friends would be safe.” He went over to her, dragging one of the bags they had filled with files. It was so heavy he could hardly lift it off the ground. “And each day, I hoped for some kind of savior or natural disaster that would wipe those demons off our backs and back into the sea.”

The room had gone silent. Everyone had stopped, staring at him.

“I will never be completely free. I have leg irons that I will never be able to take off,” he said. “I have scars that will always remind me of how everyone else out there is still suffering. I cannot sit back any more and wait for a savior. And if I can do something to change the situation, then I am going to do it.”

“No matter how many lives are lost?” she murmured, peering at him.

Key lifted his head.

“We can make it so that the Sky Children won’t know where to search. We can make their efforts impotent. And, we will save more lives by this change. No more crazy raids on railroads. We’ll take them from their masters without them even knowing it.” Key dragged the bag outside. “And we will do it the civilized way.”

Weston shrugged his shoulders then followed Key outside. Polen went after them. Most of the paperwork had been taken by then. The others heaved the remaining bags out as Sadena followed them.

They walked out into the road. The other witch rushed into the office and poured out a liquid fire, muttering words of a spell. As if alive, the fire leapt directly to the desk, the shelves, the cabinet and the floor, licking the wood. The fire scorched hot, burning everything within the empty room.

Their team made it out, standing with the loaded up cart. All of them pushed it back up the foggy road, away from the blaze.

*

“The entire military office?” Gailert stared at the captain across his desk, the news leaving him winded.

“Yes sir,” the captain replied, bowing low in apology. “The work of a witch, I am sure. I think it is in retribution for dealing with that magician and Key.”

Frowning, the general thought hard. Their entire search had proved fruitless. The raiders obviously had fled to the mountains behind Wingsley. An evacuated camp had even been discovered there the same week as the fire. It had even the signs of a smith forge as well as the remains of metal dripped on the ground from forging arrows. The only question now was where in the mountains had they gone? North? South? Or further west over the Duglis Mountains toward Westerlund?

“Was anything in that office recovered? Any survivors?” Gailert asked.

Shaking his head, the captain said, “None of the men inside the office survived. It also looks like weapons were stolen.”

“Weapons,” the general murmured to himself. “So, they are attempting to use guns now.”

The captain tilted his head to consider it. “Huh. Do you think they know how to handle a gun?”

Slowly nodding, Gailert said, “I know of one human that knew how to use guns. He is probably among those insurgents.”

“So, he could teach them.” The captain narrowed his eyes into a glare, taking the idea as personal insult.

The general nodded again to the affirmative. “He could.”

“So, we set out a warrant for his arrest?” the captain asked.

“Been done for years.” Gailert sat back in his chair, still thinking. “We had a clear view of his face from my boy that my lieutenant took. So far, he has been sighted only three times. Each time he has gotten away.”

“Where does he roam?” the captain asked.

“The Southwest Corner.”

*

“So why are we going to the Corner again?” Tiler asked Key.

Key had led their small group of young men south since the raid on the military post. All the stolen documents were sitting in the cave where their camp was still well in hiding. Their leaders were reading all the documents to sort out what was useful and what was simply paperwork nonsense. The refugee camp had moved north to an area in