Chapter 87
“She’s dying!” I smash my food pan against the bars with such might, the reverberations judder through my marrow. The pan clamors like a tambourine while I glare at the masked guard standing against the far wall, arms crossed. Waiting for Kyzari’s diadem to crack off so he can deliver it to Arkyn.
To Raeve.
“Don’t you have a fucking heart?”
My only response is the shrill echo of my desperation swinging around and punching me in the face.
Not a twitch. Barely a sign he’s even breathing.
Anger consumes me.
I whip my arm back and smash the bars, again and again and a-fucking-gain while I scream and snarl. “SHE’S”—smash—“FUCKING”—smash—“DYING!”
My face crumbles, hand swinging forward one final clanging time. Eyes squeezed shut, I press my head against the bars and allow my chest to cave. A deep, heaving sob as I fold down into a heap.
I failed her. Gave Kyzari the diary to give her hope, and it took her life—
The sound of fluttering wings whispers down the tunnel, and I look up. See a small parchment lark emerging from the darkness, gently curving toward mine and Kyzari’s cells. It wiggles faster, wings flapping harder the closer it gets.
For the first time since the shift swap, the guard shows signs of life and charges at the lark.
“I don’t think that’s for you, asshole.”
Silently, he continues powering forward.
I drop the pan and shove up, snarling as I move to the corner of my cell, clinging to the bars with clenched and shaking fists.
The guard swipes for the lark, but it dances sideways through the bars of the cell three doors down to the tune of his hissing curses. My heart beats in the base of my throat as it darts from cell to cell before finally wiggling into mine … moving past me.
I catch it anyway—the poor thing so weathered and beaten up I wonder if it’s been tossed around in a storm or three.
“You’re not allowed to receive messages,” the guard says, his words muffled behind the mask. “Hand it over. Now.”
He moves closer.
I dance back, far enough he can’t reach through and snatch me. “Can’t hear you,” I mutter, and he snarls, kicking the bars as I flatten the pleats, revealing the message within:
Kyzari.
I’m sorry for how our conversation ended. You came to me for help, and I failed you.
Please forgive me.
Where are you? I’ll come, wherever it is. I understand you may not want to see me, and though I respect that, I have something I need to talk to you about. At the very least, please send a response so I know you’re safe.
Kaan.
I swat loose tears from my cheeks before I refold the lark, wondering if he’s yet been made aware that Kyzari’s his daughter. If Arkyn’s tortured him with the information; given him everything before he snatches it back. Before he boasts that she’s half beaten her to death, and all because of me.
I took Mah from Kaan, now I’m taking his daughter from him, too—
A short, rattled inhale stills my aching heart.
I spin, gaze snapping to where Kyzari’s bundled beneath Raeve’s white cloak, pressed against the bars keeping us apart—my breath caught. Every tendon strung tight enough to snap.
Please, no. Please, let that not be what I think it was …
Her back expands with another wet sound that shoots ice through my veins. The slow rattle of impending death.
I swallow the hard ache in my throat, biting my bottom lip to still its tremble. Knowing there’s only one thing I can do for her now.
Hold her. Ease her toward the end with a softness she never got from this world.
I ignore the leering guard now leaning against the wall again and settle on the mess of filthy straw beside the bars, wedge my arms between them, then pull Kyzari close—more difficult than I imagined it would be, her body a dead weight that’s tricky to maneuver.
I try not to think too much about that, tucking Kaan’s lark into his daughter’s clammy hand—right atop his málmr—then nuzzle as close as the bars allow.
I begin telling stories of Elluin’s time in Dhomm.
Laughing, I speak of the dae we got swarmed by a flight of muri beetles; of how even Clode refused to help us sweep them away. Though perhaps it was because Elluin was giggling too hard to pronounce the words correctly.
I tell her of how—despite wearing the Aether Stone—Elluin could mold flames into blooms so hot they turned white, like the vurillo flowers born of The Shade. The ones that still grow in her late grandmah’s atrium.
My throat grows thick as I tell her of how I once glimpsed Elluin in the dead of slumbertime, tucked in a dark corner of the Imperial Fortress, surrounded by the blooms. Weeping.
The only time I ever saw her fissure.
I move on, sharing stories of Kaan. Of when I was young and lost and how he loved me with all that he had … weighted by soul-crushing guilt when I realize I had so much more of him than she ever will.
Her breaths become shallow. Less frequent.
I hold her tighter, squeeze her hands in mine. Beg for every beat of my heart to bolster hers, despite knowing it’s futile.
“You’re so very loved, Kyzari.” The words are choked past a clogged throat. “I’m here. I’m with you.”
You’re not alone.
A heavy, clattering thump has me looking toward the guard, now sideways on the floor. Motionless. Like he just toppled over and fell asleep. I’d believe that was the case, were it not for the bloody puddle that’s swelling beneath him.
I frown, the sound of jingling metal making my skin prickle.
My gaze narrows on two small, clawlike, pale-pink hands nudging a ring of keys toward the lock on my door. Hands that are unattached to any sort of body, hovering all on their own.
Guess the Mindweft fucked me up after all.
The air wobbles like a tossed cloth, falling away to reveal a miskunn stretched tall, tail poised, big pink eyes narrowed on the task of pushing one of the many keys into my lock—seeming oblivious to the fact that its obscuring shroud just crumpled to the floor.
“Who are you?”
The miskunn stills. Its eyes slowly roll in my direction before it blinks, tail swishing once, tipped with the telltale tuft of a female, her woolen tunic patched with many colorful pockets that look good for hiding things. “Uno …”
“Well … what are you doing?”
She tilts her head to the side and frowns at me, tail flicking. “Rescuing, of course.”
My heart skips a beat.
Rescuing …
“Am I hallucinating?” I ask in a wobbly voice that betrays the hopeful hitch of my pulse.
Please don’t be hallucinating …
“No. But we must move fast or the princess won’t get there in time to not die.”
Frozen, all I can do is stare, watching Uno work her way through the keys.
I should be more relieved, but one look at Kyzari—lips tinged blue as she rattles through breaths growing progressively more shallow—and I’m certain there’s no coming back from this.
She’s dying, be it here or—
Anywhere but here, in this cell that feels like a tomb.
I shift into action, gently untangling from Kyzari while Uno releases the lock on my cell, pushes the door open, and scurries in on all fours with the ring of keys dangling from her mouth.
She gets to work on my shackles while I take in the filthy state of her feet, eyes widening on the splatters of blood in her mane.
My gaze shifts to the guard and the growing puddle of crimson now seeping into my cell …
Creators. I mustn’t get on her bad side.
The shackle falls away, revealing the weeping chafe wound. “Thank you,” I whisper, bursting to my feet.
“Veya’s very welcome.” Uno scurries out the door, leaps over the puddle of blood, and gets to work on the door to Kyzari’s cell, cycling through the keys with nimble hands.
Once in the tunnel, I collect Uno’s shroud and toss it over my shoulder, keeping watch despite the eerie silence.
Unease nettles my skin. “It’s so quiet …”
“Yes. Moonfall is coming. Many.”
The sentence is soft, but it punches so hard I feel the blow from my chest all the way up into my slackening jaw.
“When?”
“Soon.”
The knowing hitch to Uno’s voice sends a shiver up my spine. “Are we going to be safe outside?”
“No choice.”
I open my mouth, snap it shut as the lock clunks open, then rush in and fall to my knees beside Kyzari.
Uno gets to work, and I frown when I notice she’s not working on releasing the actual shackle.
Rather, she’s targeting the lock that connects Kyzari’s ankle cuff to the chain that’s tethered to the ground.
I point to where the thick iron clamp has already worn through her skin in places. “If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather she not be wearing that when she—”
“Must leave iron shackle on. If Veya wants to live, that is.”
I’m about to ask what she means when the lock clicks open.
Uno goes deathly still, aside from her tail—flicking forward to rest against Kyzari’s face.
Her eyes widen, pale pink morphing into an unseeing, iridescent swirl that makes my skin prickle, her pale complexion lightening so much she almost turns see-through.
After a long, heart-pinching moment, she blinks her eyes back to normal.
Her tail slackens, though her tone strings tight enough to snap. “We must hurry. Or die.”
“Creators.”
“You will carry.” She rips a bright-pink button off her tunic and tosses it on the floor. “Uno’s too small.”
Deciding not to question the button thing, I pocket Kaan’s lark, then work my arms under Kyzari. Push up with her tucked limp and clammy against my chest, passing Uno a strained smile. “Small, but big brave.”
Her responding grin is all glinting pin teeth, lighting up her face. Perhaps the most terrifying smile I’ve ever seen.
“Which way?”
Uno scurries ahead, looks left and right down the gloomy passageway, tail poised. “I thinks this way …” She darts left and pauses, bringing her frail hand to her mouth. “I thinks.”
“Worth a shot.”
We rush down the damp serpentine tunnel that seems to go on forever, only sparsely lit by the odd lantern or flaming torch. The moment we pass a drinking well gushing down the side and into a rough-hewn basin, Uno perks up. “Yeses. This is right.”
She scampers ahead.
I trail the rhythmic bounce of her tail tuft, like a pale paintbrush flicking through the darkness. Pull Kyzari closer, tuned in to her slow breaths.
If they grow too shallow, too dense, I’ll stop, drop against the wall, and let her pass with my attention wholly on her. Not running.
We come to a fork in the tunnel. Uno peers down all three passageways, tips her nose, and scents each option, tail twitching as an anxious tension stiffens between us.
“Any clues?”
“Uno not know—” She whips around, spine arching into a defensive position as the hairs on the back of my neck lift.
I turn in time to see a huge silver creature prowl free of the gloomy tunnel we just came down, moving with all the flexing might of an adolescent Sabersythe. Twin sabers protrude from its wide maw, catching light from the flaming sconces, its mane a cluster of ribbons toying with the stagnant air.
My heart slams to a stop.
Fate Herder …
Uno hisses like she’s ready to go to war, perhaps forgetting she’s small enough to be used as a dusting cloth by the massive majestic beast. Or a sock.
Its slit eyes home on Kyzari, and every cell in my body stills.
I squeeze her against my chest, about to join Uno and fucking snarl at the thing, but then the beast whines, dropping low on its haunches until it’s almost flat with the ground—just beneath my eye level.
Uno’s hiss loses all its power.
The beast inches close, whining in such a way the backs of my eyes sting. A whine that suggests it’s in pain.
Despite it, I move back. Match it step for step until my shoulders hit a wall.
I spin, shielding Kyzari with my body. Growl as the beast sniffs me, then probes me with a gentle nudge, its warm, wet tongue dipping out to lick the side of my arm … right next to Kyzari’s face.
Movement draws my eye to the Aether Stone, like something inside it—
Glinted.
Frowning, I look over my shoulder, back into the Fate Herder’s big eyes, its slit pupils going round like twin moons. Its ribboned mane tides forward to cushion Kyzari like a pillow …
What the fuck is going on?
Another whine, and I mutter a curse before I tilt my body and offer limited access to Kyzari’s cheek.
The Fate Herder nudges me farther from the wall so it can slather her entire face in a few big licks. Like an adoring pet.
I look past the beast into Uno’s wide, watching eyes.
She shrugs.
Another rattling breath taunts the serpent of anxiety coiled in my chest.
The Fate Herder leaps back, snarling as it hunches low and prowls in slow but steady arcs, herding us toward the right tunnel—all the softness gone from its demeanor.
Leaving only the fierce, savage command for us to obey.