Chapter Twenty #2
A sob shattered the heavy silence. Penina fell to her knees before the Archpriest. “You’ve always hated her wilfulness.
There’ve been times that I also – ” Her shoulders shook, but she swiped at her eyes and forged on, “I have obeyed you. I’ve believed in you, and listened to you, and surrendered to you, even when sometimes I thought you were wrong.
” Penina sent the Archpriest a withering glare.
“I will see my daughter again. For your sake, let it be with your support, not in spite of your opposition.”
Saros stared down at her, his jaw clenched and knuckles white. But he did not argue.
Seeing the old man like that did Kai’s heart good.
A mounting, delirious furore filled his lungs, the satisfaction of angering Saros, the anxiety over River’s and Ione’s safety.
“If Menon is supposed to help our people, then let me help our people.” He held Penina’s gaze, Ronan’s; Reka’s and Dian’s.
“I’ll bring them back,” he said. “I promise.”
He turned to leave, but his mother caught his arm. “One condition – because it is dangerous for Menon to go alone – ”
Kai wrenched his arm back, not wanting her to feel that he was shaking, every ounce of him jittery nerves and energy no longer tempered with alcohol. “I don’t need a team.”
“You don’t even remember what you did when you lost control to Menon last time.” She waited in vain for Kai to dispute that. “Go alone, then, and wish you’d brought enough people to drag you and the others out of there.”
Kai suppressed a groan.
Malia clasped her hands behind her and paced, looking to each of her sons in turn. “Go in, quietly,” she said. “Engage no one. Locate our targets, get them out – ” She cocked an eyebrow at Nalu. “ – and don’t start any unnecessary fights.”
She finished by pivoting towards Saros, the charm switched back on. “We might even learn something of our enemies, mightn’t we?”
Hilo and Nalu nodded like parrots; Etan shrugged, deferring as always to the only person he took orders from.
Cynthia bounced anxiously on her toes, her expression grave.
And Malia looked to her youngest son and nodded; for the first time in Kai’s life, there was almost approval there.
It hit Kai somewhat unpleasantly in the stomach, but he nodded back. Thankful.
“Everyone, get ready,” Kai commanded them, his voice coming out stronger, surer than it had too long. “Meet outside Caelos in ten.”
Malia ushered her audience away, instructed them all to go to sleep, to look forward to interesting news in the morning. And when there was no one left but Kai and Saros, the Archpriest released an ancient, weary noise, a ragged cough interspersed with laughter.
“You’ve won this round,” he said, wiping his mouth. “So go. But you come back to Caelos unharmed.”
Kai lifted his chin. “I plan to.”
“And once you do, you’re officially my creature.
” Saros closed in, his whisper like a death rattle, reeking of blood.
“Do you understand me? I have let you rest and grieve and drink yourself to oblivion, and now, I let you leave the safety of our home for an ungrateful brat and an idiot.” He stepped back.
“I have been too patient. Come your return, Kai, you will obey me whether you like it or not.”
Soliz gleamed like ice in the cool dawn light. Kai felt impossibly small and vulnerable as he crouched beside a building across the street, hidden within Soliz’s far-reaching shadow. Grudgingly, he was glad for the company, even if it was his brothers.
Much as he hated to admit it, Mam was right. Castor had known how to kill Menon, and if Kai lost control of himself in a shrine filled with enemies, it would only take one good shot to destroy everything.
“I’m telling you,” Nalu was saying, already in a foul mood after the hard ride down the mountain. “They know they have something of ours. We should just go in and take it back.”
“Remember the last time you took charge of a covert operation?” Hilo challenged. “I know the lay of the place,” he said to Etan. “I visited once a while back – ”
Nalu scoffed. “For what?”
“I wanted to see the frescoes they’re famous for, which you’d know about if you weren’t such a fucking goon – ”
“We’re so glad you know the place, Hilo,” Etan cut in, bored. “You take charge of figuring out where we’re going, then, because I’m giving us five minutes to get in and out.”
Hilo sputtered. “Five minutes? That’s not enough.”
“Five minutes,” Etan repeated. “And if we can’t find them in that time, then fuck them. This is Kai’s ridiculous goose chase and I’m only here because Mam was feeling indulgent.”
Kai scrubbed a hand across his face, struggling to focus as Hilo launched into a rapid-fire description of Soliz, its layout, speculations as to where prisoners might be kept.
The air felt strange, charged, as though a storm was coming.
The sun had only just peeked over the buildings behind them, but a cold sweat made his clothes stick to his skin.
“Hear what?” Etan’s voice startled him back to the present.
“I dunno,” Hilo murmured. “Thought I heard singing.”
They all quieted, even Nalu, who very quickly sighed. “I don’t hear anything,” he said.
“Well, it stopped,” Hilo snapped.
“Of course it did.”
A sickening pop rang through him, not unlike the internal agony of a dislocated shoulder. Kai tasted bile and clamped a hand over his mouth, wishing for even a single gulp of wine, just enough to steady him. “What’s – what’s the plan, Lo?”
“We’re sneaking in,” Hilo said, ignoring Nalu’s responding Waste of fucking time. “There’s an entrance for deliveries ’round the side of the building.”
“And if we run into anyone?” Nalu asked flatly.
“Silence them and move on,” Etan finished. “And hope that Kai can keep a lid on Menon long enough for us to get out without half the city becoming a casualty.” Etan’s eyes hardened as they slid over to Kai, his disdain all too familiar.
Kai wondered what he saw. A spoiled child demanding his way, he supposed. Or a liability. With his stomach in knots and his pulse thrumming hard in his ears, he was beginning to fear that Etan was right.
He registered a beat late that the rest were looking to him, too, waiting for him to say something. Etan clicked his tongue, impatient. “Move out, then,” Etan said, waving at them all to follow as he stole across the street and around Soliz’s high walls.
Kai trailed after them, understanding acutely that he’d failed in that moment. He couldn’t lead them. He could barely lead himself.
Why, he wondered for the hundredth time, did Menon leave Ione for him?
A bolt of ice broke the lock on the side door, and then Hilo led the way inside, his head tilted towards the ceiling at times, muttering about stunning dendriform ceiling vaults. Whatever he’d heard before was long gone now, their footsteps echoing in the cavernous silence.
“I expected at least some guards,” Nalu muttered sourly as Kai peered around a corner down another torchlit corridor.
The entrance hall yawned open before them, a pair of grand, ornately-carpeted staircases leading upwards on either side of a massive carved door. Muted noise emanated from inside, layer upon layer of hushed whispers – a great assembly of people, punctuated by the occasional high, keening cry.
A service, or a ceremony? Was this the source of the singing?
Kai hesitated in the shadows of the adjoining corridor while the others filtered out into the room. He glanced at each of them, their expressions varying between bored and cagey. Did they not feel it? The air itself buzzed, rhythmic, an insistent beat like the rush of blood through a human heart.
His heart. He pressed a palm over his chest, his neck. His hands shook.
Distantly, he heard Nalu curse, slipping. The floor’s wet, he was saying, kicking at a puddle of water pooling before the huge gilded door.
Water. Water.
Hilo whirled to face him, paling. He barrelled past them towards one of the staircases, waving at them all to hurry. “There’s a mezzanine upstairs overlooking that room.” He sent Kai a bleak look. “It houses their primary altar.”
More quiet halls and darkened passages. They found the door they needed, leading out to a shadowed indoor balcony wrapping around an enormous circular room.
They each crouched and edged up to the wooden balustrade, watched by the ruby eyes of a winged statue of Sowelan tall enough to peek over the second floor.
A column of light shone through the opening to the ground floor, sunrays redirected from above them by countless hanging mirrors, illuminating the altar room below.
And there, fire and water clashed.
Nalu actually chuckled. “I told you letting the – ” He gritted his jaw and cursed, still bound by Kai’s ward. Small victories. “ – the lady live was a mistake.”
A horde of sun priests lined the perimeter of the room, robes in red and orange and gold illuminated by the dawn light; their faces were rapt, eyes intent and mouths open, as they watched two small figures dancing around one another in the middle of the room.
Ione and Lina.
And Lina.
And Lina –
Menon quivered within him, a cobra flaring its hood.
Whispers rasped on all sides of him, Nalu and Etan, eagerly placing bets. Hilo spotted River beside a sculpture of volcanic glass. A pair of priests stood on either side of him, guarding but not restraining him, their own attention focused on the fight.
“Duck,” Hilo hissed – and below, Ione spun out of the way of a violent whorl of flame. “I’m nearly certain I know that one,” he said, nudging Kai. “One of Ione’s, or…?” He squinted. “Actually, hang on – ”
“She – ” Kai swallowed and shut his eyes, his head light. He bowed, his forehead knocking against the wooden rail, and forced his eyes open. “She isn’t – ”
Ione rolled, narrowly missing another attack. She whipped a torrent of water at Lina, temporarily subduing her, but with a bright burst Lina freed herself.