Chapter 75 Kidan
KIDAN
Kidan woke to the sound of GK’s voice, ringing urgently.
Leave Uxlay.
Jolting upright, Kidan looked around, half expecting him to see him. But the library was void of all sound, petrified statue heads poking out from every corner.
No, she was hearing him inside her mind again. Her fingers lifted the bones from the middle of the page, the book open to “The Consequences of Resurption.”
GK? she called in her mind, feeling quite silly.
There was nothing. It was odd but their connection appeared to work at random and it was always one sided.
Susenyos had called her this morning, agitated at Samson’s escape. They hadn’t been able to find him. Kidan suspected Arin had released him, but she couldn’t figure out why.
“I’ll return tomorrow after checking one more place,” Susenyos had said, making her smile. “You won’t face the results of the votes alone.”
Unable to enter her house without her hand rotting, Kidan flipped the page, reading another line about how evil Resurption was.
To use someone’s bones and delve into their memories and thoughts was a breach of all privacy, a violation of the soul.
If Kidan was caught, she’d be immediately expelled from Uxlay.
But that wasn’t her greatest worry. Kidan wasted hours in the library because she was afraid of inheriting her mother’s culture.
But past that, her burden. Seeing the moment of her death.
You have to do this.
But even if she succeeded, something of equal value would be taken from her the moment she tried to change the law.
Just then, June entered through the automatic doors, rubbing her hands together from the chill.
Her eyes scanned the crowd as she slid off her red scarf.
She smiled when she found Kidan, fully, like her day had become brighter simply by laying eyes on her.
It felt good, every worry worming inside Kidan dimmed, a weight she didn’t even know she was carrying lifted off her shoulders.
This was her sister from the past, the one Kidan destroyed herself over, the one she sacrificed Mama Anoet for.
Yet with each step her sister took, beaming at her, panic built in Kidan’s chest.
She was slipping into old habits again. She couldn’t go back to how it was. Couldn’t obsess over June, she couldn’t love her again. Not when June hadn’t even given her an explanation for why she ran away.
June crossed the smooth tiles to her desk but Kidan shot to her feet, gathered her things, and slipped into the aisles.
“Wait, Kid—”
Kidan left the words behind and hurried, twisting into books until her sister’s fallen face disappeared. Out through one of the side doors, she inhaled cold air and tried to settle her heart. She wasn’t ready to face June.
All afternoon, none of the Dirt Diggers had contacted her. It wouldn’t be so odd if they didn’t constantly check to see if she’d mastered her house. Restless, Kidan called Adjoa. There was no answer.
Yusef would cast his vote tomorrow.
Kidan was considering going to Piran House when a text came from an unknown number.
Meet me in Grand Andromeda Hall.
It could be Slen. That was where she practiced her violin while Yusef sketched.
Kidan cut to the north, passing the delicious scent of sugary treats from the bakery, trying not to think of June.
She bounded up the steps bracketed by Demasus’s golden lion statues, pausing to study the glistening mane.
Now that she knew about the Six Manes of Blood, the symbol of the lion only stirred caution in her.
Every lamppost, faucet, and door knocker featured the beast. The Six Manes of Blood were always watching them, bidding their time in the shadows.
Kidan wound down the wide halls of the building, passing multiple grand rooms until she reached the empty one in the east wing.
A soft breath left her.
It’d been entirely transformed. The covered marble statues were unveiled, polished, and positioned around high tables with beautiful centerpieces. But that wasn’t what captivated her.
There were charcoal drawings all around the square walls and they were all of…
Slen. The first one near the entry featured Slen staring with smeared eyes, violin held against her leg.
Yusef had drawn that last semester, erasing her eyes in frustration because he couldn’t capture the multitudes of her gaze.
The next scene had Slen picking up her violin.
Each drawing served as a stop-motion picture—her head angled on the bow, her right arm drawing back, the bow striking strings, until you reached the middle portrait.
Kidan drew closer, mesmerized. It was subtle but the tip of the violin bow had sharpened, almost like a spear’s tip. Kidan moved to her right, watching the bow gradually transform into a… long sword.
Soon, the violin began to morph too, flat and silver as a shield. Until the final piece at the end of the arc depicted Slen holding out the sword to the audience, eyes fierce, shield against her leg.
A few seconds later, footsteps echoed in the still room.
Slen was standing there, her eyes roaming the walls. Slowly, she approached a drawing, her combat boots making no sound.
“What is this?” she asked, her voice unusually soft.
“You didn’t text me?” Kidan asked.
It took Slen a moment to avert her attention from the sketch. “No. I thought you texted me.”
Worry crowded them at the same time, laced with danger.
Leave, Kidan.
A horrible wrench twisted inside her, following GK’s warning. Something was wrong.
The storeroom door screeched open and Yusef came out dragging a large box of canvases. He straightened and wiped his forehead. His clothes were smeared in charcoal and dust.
When he noticed them across the marble floor, he jerked straight as if he’d seen a ghost.
“What are you doing here?” His voice was barely audible, filled with fear.
Before Kidan could explain, he rushed toward them, grabbed their wrists, and turned them to the door.
“We need to leave. Now. Right now.” He sounded unreasonably afraid. Jittery.
“Hey, slow down,” Kidan protested as he dragged them to the doors.
“Let go.” Slen struggled as well. “What’s wrong with you?”
Yusef reached the door handle and pulled. It didn’t open. He tried again, using both hands, rattling the whole thing.
But it was locked.
“No,” he whispered. “It’s not time yet.”
“Hey,” Kidan said, her own fear rising now. “Talk to us. You invited us, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t.” His eyes were the size of saucers when he turned around.
“Yusef,” Slen said, concern tightening her face. “What did you do?”
Yusef’s head tipped up to the domed ceiling, a look of violent horror climbing along his face. The chandelier trembled, thousands of crystals chattering like broken teeth, trying to warn them of what was to come.
Yusef grabbed their hands again, hard enough to crush, but neither of them complained.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered.
Thunder ripped from the sky.
The chandelier snapped, gold and crystals hurtling to the floor. Yusef yanked them lower, throwing his arms over their heads as a devastating sound boomed over them. Kidan’s heart slammed to the concrete, a high-pitched screech blocking all other sound.
Dust filled the air and she wanted to scream or call their names, but her throat was choked full of terror.
Yusef hauled Kidan and Slen up, pieces of plaster covered their hair and shoulders, a few scratches along their faces.
He was shouting at them but Kidan couldn’t hear anything. Her legs were shaking too much to move.
There was too much ringing.
Ringing.
“That was only the first one!” Yusef’s shout pierced through the bubble of noise. “We need to get out!”
Frantically, Yusef pointed to the windows. Safety.
Kidan willed her legs to move, to focus on the pocket of sunlight and not the end of the world. Stumbling through a portion of the collapsed roof, they ran.
Something caught Slen, wrenching her from them. The broken limb of a statue had made her stumble, rolling her ankle.
Another rumble tore at their feet.
The second boom was coming.
“Slen!” Kidan shouted, finally finding her voice. “Get up!”
Blood was running down Slen’s forehead. Panic stretched her pupils wide on the edge of glimpsing death.
She tried to stand and fell again. Kidan started to run back but Yusef got there first, pushing Slen aside just as the second explosion put them off-balance, crashing them to their knees on the cement.
Boom.
Kidan’s back met the ground, her arms shielding her head. Everything spun, she was unable to see through the dust. Someone was shouting her name, pleading for her to help. She forced her eyes to focus, trying to find the sound.
Slen’s shoulders were hunched over a figure.
And she was screaming.
Yusef’s body was trapped beneath a monstrous column.
Crushed.
A broken sound left Kidan.
The world went entirely dark and only Yusef came into view. Slen’s scream moved Kidan to her feet, forced her to cross the broken concrete to them. Blood trailed out of Yusef’s lips, warm brown eyes staring up. He was trying to speak.
“You’re going to be fine. You’re going to be fine.”
She didn’t recognize her own voice, the tremble to it, but Kidan repeated the words.
Slen and Kidan tried to move the white pillar from Yusef’s body. It was the size of a mountain, and rooted in place.
“Fuck!” Kidan screamed with all her voice, hoping someone would hear them. “Help!”
Slen slid down the curved stone, breathing raggedly. A horrible realization settled across her face. She limped around to Yusef, kneeling over his head.
“Slen!” Kidan barked. “Come help me!”
Slen didn’t move, her face stricken.
“It was only supposed to be a distraction.” Yusef’s voice was thin, blood running down his forehead from his soft curls. “So they could free him. My dad.”
Slen cradled his face. For once, her voice was full, nothing but pained emotion. “What did you do?”
“The Dirt Diggers offered me a deal.”