36. Explosives Engineering #2
“I said I’m going to check the supplies for anything that might help.” I stood from the table, but Stanley pushed me back into my chair with a hand on my shoulder.
“Those supplies are for the armada.”
“You’re right. We’d be better off chucking you into the forest and using you as bait while the rest of us sneak past on the train. Rotsbane love the smell of Nightmare.” I looked to Tiernan. “Do you like that plan, Tiernan?”
“I’m fine with it.” The beads in his locks clicked together as he nodded.
“Well that’s two votes for that plan! Stanley? Any input?”
He scowled and removed his hand from my shoulder. I stood again. My forehead only came to his chin, but I was taller than him in our world.
“Good boy,” I jeered. “Watch the engine. We’ll be back.”
Tiernan limped after me. “Are you trying to make him angry on purpose?”
“Yeah, actually.” Wind pulled at my hair in the space between carriages as I stepped through the gap and back to the supply carts.
“He’s from my world, and he’s trying to help Tamora hurt our home.
He’s trading all of Keldori’s safety for the chance to have muscles instead of just getting a gym membership and some creatine. ”
“Sure, but don’t agitate him when we’re supposed to be working with him.”
I pried open the nearest crate to poke around inside. “You have to realize that’s pretty rich coming from you. You remember you blew me up once, right?”
The crate was full of root vegetables, and a quick glance at the neighboring crates told me this carriage was all food supplies. I shuffled down the tight aisle to the next door.
“I wasn’t trying to permanently kill you.”
“No, that was later,” I reminded him. “When Ferrin told you to.”
“That’s not fair. You would’ve trusted Ferrin if you’d been in our position.”
“I don’t know that I would have.” I stepped into the next carriage. When the door behind me closed and cut off the wind sound, I dared to ask, “Is she still mad at me?”
“Yes,” Tiernan sighed. “And no. Orla understands, but she’s hurt.”
“I don’t get why she cares about him still.”
“The worst thing Orla has witnessed Ferrin do was try to murder her. Sometimes it’s easier to forgive violence against ourselves than it is to forgive violence against our loved ones.”
“That’s stupid. He killed her parents.”
“But she wasn’t there.”
“And? You were happy to try to murder Caitria, and she’s your sister. How’s it any different?”
“It’s different because I saw what Caitria did to the Firelds. I didn’t know it was her at the time, but I watched her kill them.”
I paused with my hand on the lid of a barrel. “I forgot you would’ve been there that night.”
“I should’ve tried harder to stop her.”
I snapped around to look at Tiernan where he stood between two towers of wooden boxes. The sunlight filtering through bits of visible window ringed his twisted locks in gold and turned the dark skin of his face rich and warm.
“You were just a kid,” I said.
“Caitria killed Fana’s oldest brother right in front of me. He was our age, and he was probably my only friend.”
“What was his name?”
“Fassil.” Tiernan’s lips fell into a sad smile, and he scratched the rough wood of a crate.
“We’d stay up late to play games since there wasn’t much leisure time during the day for either of us, so I was with him when the killing started.
They couldn’t defend themselves. Fireld magick is beautiful, but isn’t easily controlled. ”
“Fana told me.” I nodded. “Her magick is linked to the sun.”
“Most of them had never used magick before. None of them even had Skal in their systems. They were defenseless. When the screams started, Fassil begged me to go find Fana. I did, but when we got back, Caitria had him by the throat. He yelled for us to run, and then—”
Tiernan cut off and looked through the sliver of window available to him between crates. Sunlight caught the flecks in his amber eyes, turning them gold.
“It’s not your fault,” I said.
“Caitria wasn’t planning on killing Fana.
If I had stayed with Fassil, I could’ve protected him.
But he told me to go protect Fana instead, and that’s what I’ve done for the last five years, and it’s what I’ll continue to do.
” He turned his golden eyes on me. “So, no. I have no kindness left for my sister and no mercy to be spared. Maybe that makes me better than Orla. Maybe it doesn’t.
Either way, I hope this ends with both Caitria and Ferrin dead. ”
“And when this ends, what is your plan?”
“To continue protecting Fana.”
“There won’t be anyone hunting her in Keldori.” I laughed softly.
“She’ll still need protecting.”
“Sure.” I pried open another crate to find ropes. “But you can’t breathe down her neck for the rest of her life.”
“I made a promise to Fassil—”
“Fassil was your friend,” I interjected, letting the lid of my crate fall shut. “He wouldn’t want you to punish yourself for the rest of your life because of something your sister did.”
“You didn’t know him. You don’t know—”
“I know a friend would want you to be happy.”
“Maybe,” he conceded. “But not until Caitria is dead.”
“If that’s what it takes for you to allow yourself to loosen up a little bit, fine. We’ll kill Caitria, and we’ll set you up with a nice apartment in Keel Watch Harbor where you can watch Fana and be happy. Maybe we’ll even find you a friend.”
“Oh?” He raised an eyebrow at me.
“Not me, of course. Someone else.”
“Of course.” He smiled, then stooped onto one knee. “Thank you, Wren.”
I rolled my eyes and moved onto the next crate. “Thank you for not calling me ‘my Lady’, but you don’t need to get down on your knee either.”
“I don’t understand why you don’t like being called Lady.”
I shook my head at a wooden lid, bracing myself against its lip as the train jostled us.
“Everyone thinks I’m some sort of god. They know the amazing things my grandmother has done, and they know my mother is powerful too. And they expect me to be like them. ‘My Lady’ isn’t a title, it’s an expectation, and not one I’m sure I’ll be able to meet.”
“You survived Mycastrath,” Tiernan said. “And you saved Willow’s Grave.”
“You don’t know my grandmother. She’s everything. There’s no one like her. But anyone expecting me to do what she can is going to be disappointed.” I tightened my fingers where I gripped the wooden crate and dropped my voice. “I don’t want to disappoint anyone.”
“You couldn’t possibly disappoint me,” Tiernan assured me. “My opinion of you was very low when we first met. It can only improve.”
I pried the next crate open and grinned at the nails and scraps of metal inside.
“Don’t set the bar too low,” I said, “because I know how we’re going to fight the rotsbane.”
Bottles rattled against each other where we lined them up on the tables. We’d had to empty them of food, spices, and drink, and while Stanley admonished us, I was sure Tamora wouldn’t care about the wasted provisions as long as we got her train to the harbor.
Ciarán had fallen asleep in the prison carriage an hour ago, and I worked to the sound of him sleep talking in my head and mumbling something nonsensical about Jonquil.
“More nails, please.” I held my hand out, and Tiernan dropped a fistful of metal into my palm. I shoved the nails through the mouth of a narrow-necked bottle and gave it a rattle.
Stanley watched our project with feigned boredom. “This will never work.”
“Don’t worry, we still have Plan B,” I quipped.
“Which is?”
“Throw you at the rotsbane, remember?” I passed my bottle to Tiernan.
A golden spark flickered in the middle of the tangle of nails at Tiernan’s bidding, and then it grew into a pulsing orb that pressed at the confines of the glass and washed us in golden light.
Tiernan set it in the crate at our feet, adding it to our growing collection of nail bombs.
“Don’t worry,” I said to Stanley, already filling a new jar with sharp metal bits. “Tiernan’s explosive magick is very powerful. Ask me how I know.”
“I already said I was sorry about that,” Tiernan sighed.
“Don’t be. It’s going to help us now.” Apprehension mounted in my gut as the sky continued to darken outside. Indigo clouds suffocated the final pink and orange vestiges of day. We just had to make it through the night. Then we’d get our boat and get to Keldori.
“Keep your head, Blue,” Ciarán murmured in my mind.
“You’re awake,” I replied.
“And you made bombs while I was asleep. How cute.”
“They are, thanks.” I stooped to fill my backpack with explosive jars from the crate and said out loud to the others, “I’ll go keep watch over the engine. Tiernan, keep making them, and Stanley—”
I stopped when I noticed Stanley was staring blankly again, having slipped back out of Lucidity.
“I’ll watch him,” Tiernan grunted.