Chapter 49
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
SOFIA
S ofia watched as the blade sank into the general’s chest. For only a moment, she regretted letting Fox finish the job. She would have enjoyed the feel of his blood between her fingers as she saw the light leave his eyes.
But then Fox’s shoulders straightened and lifted as if released of a weight they’d been holding for decades. She watched his face as his father’s body fell to the ground; though pale, it remained free of tears. He’d needed this moment just as much as she did. It was okay. She’d have her own retribution in the end. She would be the one to kill the chief commander and she’d make it slow and painful when the time came.
“Are you okay?” she asked when Fox didn’t move immediately, still looking down at his father.
“I am,” he said, looking up at her at last. “Does that make me a horrible person?”
She didn’t know the answer to that. She’d never killed a family member or even a friend. “ He was a horrible person. Cruel for the sake of cruelty. If it takes a horrible person to rid the world of that, then perhaps it’s worth being one.”
His lips lifted, just barely before his face turned serious again.
“We need to leave. You’re already supposed to be on your way out of the city.”
“There is something I need before we go.”
His eyes narrowed. “I swear to the dragon gods myself—if you are going to try and kill the chief commander after all of this.”
She shook her head, looking around and seeing the staircase up in the distance.
“I’m not going to kill the chief commander. Not today. I know I can’t do that on my own. But I need information.”
“You need to live through this day.” He grasped her arm and forced her to look at him. “Every moment you spend here is dangerous. We should get back to the others.”
Her hand reached out, against her own volition, and she rested her fingers against his cheek.
“Trust me, please.”
His throat bobbed before he nodded reluctantly. He released her and she saw the blood he’d left behind, his hand imprinted on her.
She ran, talking the steps from the basement two at a time until they crashed through a set of heavy doors and into the main manor.
She didn’t explain where they were going, knowing he’d follow. She darted through the all-too-familiar hallways. The chief commander’s home was practically dead, but it wasn’t empty. She caught the whispered sounds of servants behind doors, but they were too scared to poke their noses out anyway. The chief commander didn’t have a family. He hadn’t had a family in over three decades, before Sofia had even begun to work for him.
As they came to the third floor, her heart was hammering in her chest, bile rising in her throat. She could mark the exact day she’d last passed these doors—the day Mina died.
The closer she got to the chief commander’s office, the louder her heart seemed to beat, and by the time she grasped the handle and turned it, she could barely even hear the click of the latch opening over the roaring in her ears. She didn’t bother looking around the office, instead going straight to the bookshelf and pulling the book she knew so well. The shelf slid aside.
Behind her, Fox let out a muffled curse as he stood back and watched.
She paused only long enough to shoot him a told-you-so smirk before she slipped inside.
The closet was just as she remembered, and yet nothing like she remembered. There were more books than there used to be, and she wondered whose collections he had stolen—how many had died to fill this room. But there were also some missing. At least she couldn’t find them in the chaos. She doubted he organized the room, likely throwing in books and walking away. Still, there was a clear pile that had been recently shuffled through and read, their covers clean of dust.
A History of Suvi and Wueco Peninsula
Dragons and Demons: Religious Fanaticism of the Wuecan People
Myths, Monsters, and Magical Thinking of Savages
Fox stepped in close to watch her, not questioning what she was doing, only grabbing a couple books off the shelf and handing them to her.
She smiled when she saw the titles. Works on dragons and the history of the great king’s hunt. Fox hadn’t needed to ask.
“Keep this one for yourself,” she said, pressing a small tome into his chest. “I memorized it when I was younger.”
He nodded, fingers wrapping around the leather cover.
“I’ll find a bag, you can’t walk out balancing all of those without drawing attention.”
She nodded, focused on the task of finding the most relevant titles she could. The chief commander would know exactly who had broken into his study and stolen his precious books. This would be the last time she’d see any book she left behind. Whether he hid them, locked them away, or burned them.
She smiled at the thought of him returning to a ransacked office, knowing exactly who was responsible. But even as she smiled, another thought shuddered through her. The chief commander knew she was alive now, which meant her parents were in danger again. Once she’d fled the city, she’d be leaving them behind to be taken and interrogated by the king’s men. Were they even still alive? It had always been too painful to seek out information on them when she couldn’t do anything with it.
Her teeth cut into the sides of her cheeks until she focused her thoughts once more. One step at a time.
When she had enough books that her arms were shaking under the weight, she finally left the room, trying hard not to regret each and every volume she was leaving behind. Fox was there in an instant, a leather satchel open and ready for her haul. She tucked them inside and he looped the bag over his shoulder.
“Those are mi?—”
“Heavy and will be perfectly safe with me. I promise.” He gave her a look so earnest she couldn’t not believe him. She could see the blood of his father still drying under his nails.
He was wearing a cloak—one he must have found in the main study. His sword still swung from his back, joined now by the bag of books. She met his eyes and he smirked. She realized she’d been staring, a stupid smile on her face. For the briefest moment, she thought of kissing him. Her smile turned into a scowl and she pushed past him.
“Let’s go, then.”
* * *
They ran into no one on their way out of the manor and once they exited the black gates, it was clear why. The city was on fire. However many allies they had started with in the initial attack, it seemed many others had heeded the call. Flames littered the cityscape in every direction and explosions echoed in the distance, toward the prison. Civilians were scattered about, some carrying buckets of water from the canal and others clinging to their possessions.
It was easy to slip through the crowd, just two more people running in the chaos, and Sofia led them down turn after turn, the streets of the military quarter more familiar than she expected. Fox followed close behind, unsure of where they were going. It was when they were deep into the slums, only a few blocks from the inn that Fox grabbed her, forcing her to slow.
“You’re wheezing!” he snapped when she tried to pull him, needing to go faster.
“I’m fine,” she said, but her words came out in a squeak and a cough that only had him raising his eyebrows. Her breaths were knives in her chest and she cursed her lungs for their unwillingness to function when she needed them.
“I’m going to get you out of the city,” he said, as they continued to move, slower now. “Trust me.”
She nodded, not wanting to talk. Not wanting him to hear the rattle of her breath if she tried.
They made it to the street the inn sat on at last, the tall, crumbling structure visible in the distance, towering above the smaller buildings around it. But even if she hadn’t seen it, she would have known they were in the right place.
A ring of soldiers were converging on the inn as a mob of civilians screamed and waved makeshift weapons—a ring of soldiers standing between them and the inn. Sofia wasn’t sure if the mob was purposefully defending the resistance at this point or if the rising tensions between Dragonborn and Dereyans had finally snapped.
“We’re going there, aren’t we?” Fox said, looking at the crowd.
“They couldn’t make it easy, could they?” she said, looking around, trying to make a plan.
Fox had already lifted his hood, throwing his face into shadows, and pulled out his sword by the time Sofia noticed.
“Slow down, Hero,” she said, resting her hand on his shoulder. “I have a plan.”
Fox only gave a small frown as she directed him into a nearby alley and pointed to the small stack of crates along one wall. He didn’t move immediately.
“Go on,” she said, impatient.
“Yes, my captor. I missed you ordering me around.”
She barely caught the glint of his smile before he was moving, more gracefully than she expected up and over the wall. She followed, pulling herself up without his offered hand.
He only rolled his eyes. “Which way?”
It wasn’t a perfect route, and a few times they had to jump across the rooftops to reach the street over, but they were quiet, slipping through the orange-cast night without being seen. The flash of Flor’s red hair among the mob made Sofia’s stomach swoop, the tension in her shoulders easing.
Sofia dropped down a few feet from where Flor was standing. She nearly stabbed her, but Sofia ducked out of the way, showing her face in the light as she raised her hands in surrender.
“It’s me!”
“Scales,” Flor practically shouted as she lunged forward, pulling Sofia in so tightly her next breath came out in a wheeze.
Fox landed behind them with a soft thud.
“So, what’s the plan?” he said without preamble.
“What in the dragon gods is he doing here?”
Javi’s voice sent a shock of lightning through her and she turned, parsing through the shadowy figures until she saw him, dirty and a bit gaunter than before but there—and alive.
Sofia didn’t bother with words, throwing herself at him before he even registered she was there. He let out a yelp and pulled back, squinting at her face in the dark before his eyes widened.
“Scales, Flor said, but—” He pulled her back into the hug and she couldn’t stop the tears that were burning her eyes. He smelled of the rainforest and of himself and she didn’t want to let go. His heart-mother hovered behind him, her eyes still wet with unshed tears.
“The demon-spawn has a point,” Flor said from behind them. “We need an escape plan.”
Sofia pulled back. “We don’t have an escape plan?” she said slowly, looking between them. She saw Vato standing a few feet away, as well, drawn by their conversation.
“The plan was to go out the gates, but the army reacted too quickly. Once the bombs went off, some of the more zealous civilians started attacking the king’s men forcing the army to put up their defenses.” He paused, as if hesitant to say the next thing. “We’re surrounded.”
“What about the way Sofia and I came?”
“It just leads us deeper into the city,” Sofia said. “And there is no way everyone would make it. Especially without being seen.”
“So we fight our way out?” Flor said.
Sofia looked at their group. Even with the townspeople screaming and throwing rocks, the soldiers were closing in and behind the front lines children were huddled. Their injured leaned heavily against walls, some looking half-dead.
They had escaped the prison only to be trapped here, in the slums that had already held them, a prison of its own.
And, then like a silent explosion, the air around them crackled and sang. A wind blew through the street, sending the flames dancing violently, and a deafening roar filled Sofia’s ears, causing her eardrums to shudder. She gripped the side of her head, teeth clenched, and she wondered if this was what death sounded like.