Pain dragged Sterling back from the ocean. He gripped his side, blood oozing between his fritters from the stab crack. hard, Damian lay sprawled and motionless. Banes impended over Emilia, cutter poised at her throat as she writhed in terror." No more games, old friend. After over a decade, this ends tonight." With tortured trouble, Sterling dragged himself towards his dynamo discarded near Damian. He'd to buy them time, distract the monster from Emilia." How.are you alive?" Banes beamed manically." Death has no hold on a man with nothing left to lose. I'll savor breaking you, piece by piece, before joining your corses
ever." As Banes monologued, Sterling's fritters closed around the grip. With his last reserves, he whipped around aiming but Damian was formerly moving. In a blur, Damian disarmed Banes and hauled him into a chokehold. Emilia broke free and ran to Sterling, pressing her scarf to his crack. " End.this," Sterling moaned up at Damian. Brother met family's aspect
with steely understanding. This would be no prisoner, no trial-only justice. With a sickening crack, Damian snapped Banes' neck and let the body fall limp. It was over at last. Sterling breathed his last as the family was reunited in peace formerly more. Or so they hoped. For in the murk, a minatory figure smiled- this was only the morning. Sterling awoke with a launch, sitting bolt upright in bed before agony screamed through his injured side. " Shh, you are safe," soothed Emilia's voice beside him. He relaxed at the familiar surroundings of their bedroom. " Banes.Damian." Sterling croaked. Emilia took his hand gently." Gone. You've been delirious with fever for days." At that moment, Damian entered carrying fresh tapes." Family! You live yet," he said with a smile, beginning to change Sterling's dressing. As Sterling's mind cleared, pieces fell into place." The figure in the shadows.who was it?" Emilia and Damian participated a upset look. " We do not know," Damian said sluggishly." But when I.dealt with Banes, another was surely there watching. dissolved without a trace by the time help arrived." Sterling gripped his family's arm." Swear to me, you will find the verity. I will not sleep until our family is safe again." Damian jounced solemnly." Rest now. I will leave no gravestone unturned to uncover this riddle." He gathered his effects to begin the hunt. still, unknown to the sisters, minatory eyes were formerly watching their every move from the murk, staying to strike. Weeks passed as Sterling recovered under Emilia's gentle care. Damian's hunt for suggestions to the mysterious bystander turned up nothing. One night a rainstorm raged, when pounding roused Sterling from spastic sleep. He limped to the frontal door and threw it open to find Damian drenched and grim- faced. " What's it, family?" Sterling asked, dreading the answer. Damian simply wordlessly handed over a scrap of cloth set up at the point of Banes' final stage- bearing an each- too familiar symbol. Sterling's blood ran cold." The Ravens.I allowed
we saw the last of their council times agone
!" The Ravens were a ruthless band of cutthroats who had guided the youthful sisters before a falling out. If they now targeted Sterling's family. " We must leave at formerly," Sterling said forcefully. As they packed in haste, Emilia noticed Damian gaping visited into the rain. " What's it, love?" she asked vocally. He turned to her, rain trickling from his stubble." The Ravens tutored me their trade well. If they hunt us.any pursuit will be a battle to the death." Sterling laid a hand on his family's shoulder." also we'll make our stand together, as always. No bone
threatens our family and lives to tell the tale." And with that, the sisters loaded their cart and dissolved into the stormy night, a shadowy nemesis on their trail. Their final showdown was imminent. The family's cart contended through the night as the storm raged on. Sterling gripped his rifle anxiously, eyes surveying for movement in the blackness. Suddenly, out of the darkness a large shape impended- a fallen tree had blocked the road. As Sterling yelled and pulled back on the arm, shapes surfaced from the forestland. " Ravens!" cried Damian, drawing his fireballs. Sterling hopped down and pushed Emilia safely behind him just as the cutthroats attacked. Gunfire lit the night as the sisters engaged their old instructors in a deadly cotillion . Sterling picked off two Ravens methodically despite his injury, but more kept coming. He risked a regard at Damian and set- a Raven grappled his family, cutter to his throat. " Stand down," came a husky voice. A hulking figure surfaced, head wrapped in strips of cloth hiding his face." Caliban," Damian wrangle. Their former leader beamed beneath his disguise. " We do not want to kill you.yet," Caliban said vocally." Come, it's been too long. Leave the women, sons, we've much to bandy." Sterling and Damian eyed each other, outnumbered but unintentional to abandon their family. An idea formed in Sterling's mind and he gave a subtle nod. " veritably well, we'll come still." Caliban smiled as the sisters were bound and led into the forestland. But their rendition was simply the morning. Caliban marched the sisters deeper into the thick timber. Though bound, Sterling and Damian covertly worked to saw through their tapes on the rough dinghy. firebugs flitted ominously as the Ravens' camp surfaced, shrouded in mist. A gaunt figure was threaded up, beaten and bloody. " Dmitri!" Damian blatted still, feting one of their former sisters- in- arms. The man stirred weakly at the sound. Caliban backhanded Damian severely." Silence. You betrayed us for the last time times agone
. Now you will watch your friend die for it." As two Ravens stepped forward brandishing shanks
, Sterling sprang into action. With a roar he broke free of his bands, grabbing a arsonist and swinging hectically to disarm the cutthroats. Damian leapt upon Caliban, engaging their former leader in a vicious brawl. Sterling cut Dmitri down and handed him a pilfered cutter." Find munitions, help is coming!" As Sterling joined Damian against Caliban, their fighting drew the remaining Ravens. whoops rose in the mist- Emilia had led riders from a near vill to attack the camp from the reverse. Chaos erupted as Sterling engaged two Ravens at formerly, dancing with honey and sword. A projectile chimed out, and Caliban fell- felled by Damian's dynamo. At last, the Ravens were broken. As dawn rose, Sterling embraced a crippled but victorious Damian, their family and freedom secured formerly more. Though the Ravens had been defeated, Sterling knew the trouble was n't yet over. As the sisters made camp that evening, he commended in Damian. " Caliban was simply a statuette- someone additional pulls the strings. We must uncover the true architect behind the attacks." Damian augmented the fire, eyes miscarrying." Agreed. But where do we start? The Ravens revealed nothing before they fell." A howl in the backwoods caused both men to draw munitions, but it was only Emilia returning from the swash." You will noway believe who I met down there." She signaled them over. Lying by the bank, crippled and delirious with fever, was none other than Dmitri. Though gravely injured, he grasped Sterling's arm. " Before.Caliban died.he spoke a name. The bone
who betrayed us." With his last breaths, Dmitri rasped a single word" Karimov." Sterling and Damian participated a dark look, feting the name. Karimov had been a rival indeed in their days leading the Ravens. It sounded he now sought to claim total power. " We leave for his fort at dawn," Sterling declared. Damian jounced grimly." It ends with Karimov." But unknown troubles awaited the sisters on their final hunt for revenge. The coming morning, Sterling, Damian and Emilia rode hard for Karimov's distant fort, determined to put an end to the trouble against their family formerly and for all. As the fort came into view under the setting sun, they progressed on bottom through rocky scars. Damian held Emilia near." stay then until we return." Sterling and Damian stalked the towering gravestone walls, taking out two posted guards quietly. They glinted Karimov pacing the yard below, girdled by his stylish men. " We go together," Sterling said. At Damian's nod, they charged into battle with fierce cries. Steel chimed as the sisters fought back to back, cutting a swath through Karimov's forces. Soon only Karimov remained, drawing his cutlasses with a feral grin." At last, the extravagant sons return. I'll enjoy watching the light leave your eyes." Sterling and Damian poised for the final showdown. But before blades could meet, an arrow flew putatively from nowhere, chancing its target in Karimov's neck. He dropped dead as the sisters whirled in shock. On a high alcazar stood a veiled figure lowering a bone arc, before evaporating into the murk of the fort." Another adversary remains," Damian said grimly. A bone- chilling laugh pierced the night- Emilia. Their revenge would have to stay, as new pitfalls now targeted their family within Karimov's fort walls. Trapped with a retired bushwhacker, the sisters' final battle was only just beginning.