Free Shattered Soul by Angela Verdenius Page B

screen image of herself and Rani locked in ice. Her blurred, frozen features stared back at her from the thick depths of the ice, and she remembered...
    “Back!” A hunter yelled in panic. “Everyone get out! Now!”
    The hunters started to move fast, slipping and falling as the ground beneath them lurched and swelled in a rippling effect that was nauseatingly frightening. It was as though some living, breathing entity was rearing up from the very earth.
    Something was wrong, so very wrong. Unnatural.
    Ceri looked at Rani and they started forward. Another blast of air shot up from the huge crack, and she felt the ice forming on her face, biting cold, the freezing aching in her bones.
    Unable to see properly, Ceri crouched and held her sword in front of her. Swearing, she tried to focus through the cold fog, but then it was too late.
    A flash, a cry of surprise, and a split-second of stillness. Heart in her throat, she swung her head around, horror filling her. Horror and fear and despair.
    Rani was down on one knee, her sword at her feet and one hand at her throat. Blood spilled down under her palm and between her fingers. She made a choked sound and looked up, her beautiful eyes wide in shock.
    Her throat was cut. Her sister’s throat had been cut! Even as Ceri stared, Rani lowered her head, her hand tightening around her throat as though in an effort to stem the lifeblood pumping hotly from beneath her hand to drench the front of her sleeveless vest.
    A blast of frigid air burst forth from the crack and Ceri couldn’t move. Still staring in horror at her sister dying before her eyes, she couldn’t reach out, couldn’t touch her—waking up in darkness. Cold air, water, chilled to the marrow. On the floor, ice on the walls. Male voices, hunters waiting for her. Crawling out, so slow, so weak, so sick. She crawled out, and then a hard hand was beneath her chin and through the cold air blasting from the freezer unit she saw the hard eyes looking down at her, the grim face of Abra. fon.
    Hot water seeping the chill from her bones, hot drinks being poured into her. Voices, always voices, and sleep. She kept floating away every time she started to stir. Another drink, float away.
    Heart pounding a tattoo in her chest, she stared back at the screen as Reya’s face appeared. Older, a mature beauty, her pale green eyes like ice. She had a coldness about her that Ceri didn’t remember, but it was her. Unmistakable, the same features as her mother, the same colour eyes as her father.
    “Ceri,” Reya said with cold control. “You’re going to be confused but you need to know that everything is all right. I’m coming for you. Aye, you’re aboard a bounty hunter’s ship, but they’re our...” An icy smile flickered around her full lips. “Nay, not friends. But they will keep you safe. You have no reason to fear them. If you’re listening to this then you’ve already seen the pardon we received. All you have to do is rest and wait for me. I’ll be meeting you shortly to bring you back to Comll, back to our sister warriors. When you’re ready, tell Abra and he will put you into contact with me.” Her ice cold eyes softened slightly. “’Twill be good to see you again, cousin.”
    Reya’s words were peppered with Daamen words, ‘aye’ instead of ‘yes’, and other words, but it was her voice, matured.
    Then came a medley of image photos, images of Connie, Tenia, Reya and Dana with their husbands and children. They were all older, matured. Connie had several silver strands in her beautiful thick hair.
    And that was it. The screen went blank.
    Breathing heavily, Ceri stared at the screen. If what she saw was true, if it was all true... the last she remembered, it was 6992.
    Now it was, apparently, 7006.
    Black spots danced in front of her eyes and she could feel herself start to hyperventilate. Leaning forward, she tried to calm her breathing, but panic started to grip her and she was breathing too fast, much too