Chapter 4
A Bunch Of Scary Motherfuckers
The Kingsweep.
The place for lost souls.
Well … lost, evil, dangerous, or murderous. And now, with the addition of Eiko and her friends, it was also a place for rejected souls.
For the second time in her life, Eiko found herself loitering before the formidable black carriage. The place nobody ever sought out, unless there was no place for them left in Lyra. She could feel it, like a looming shadow over her skin.
“There has to be another option,” she said flatly.
“If there was, I’d know about it.” Ky was grave. “You didn’t see those people, Eiko. You didn’t see … Never mind. Hollowed was a good way to describe them. There wasn’t anything left. I can’t let them do that to me. I’d rather die.”
“You’ll probably get your wish,” she growled back.
“We could run,” Ren suggested. Again. It was natural to assume that they would run together as a group, even though only two of them were on the list. Three, if you included Kira. They had done everything as a group since they were children.
“And be hunted down before the sun rises,” Ky reminded him. “We have a matter of minutes before the guards start searching for Rion and Kira, if they aren’t already. And once they find out Ky is gone, too—”
“We didn’t even lie together,” Kira suddenly blurted, still protesting her reputation to deaf ears, as though any of them cared in the slightest. “Rion isn’t … It wasn’t like …”
“But Enji …” Ren ignored Kira’s pleas of innocence. “He was perfectly lucid. Maybe what happened to those other prisoners was something else.”
“He was fresh,” Rion argued, though her tone held compassion.
They had never met Enji. Ky had kept his newest lover hidden from even them, as he often did in the earliest stages, but they knew how much Ky had begun to care for him.
He had been silent ever since Enji refused to come with them, claiming the hollow seed would soon take his thoughts and will away.
Ky didn’t speak again until they had arrived before the black carriage.
“The stuff clearly takes time to work,” Rion insisted gently. “We’re not arguing about this anymore. We’re leaving. I’ll not put my family in the position of having to hand me over to … to that.”
Ky grunted his agreement, too worn out from the ferocious back and forth the group had already indulged in as they raced to the train.
Handing oneself over to the Kingsweep meant an immediate, blanket forgiveness for all past crimes and transgressions, no matter how serious.
The train would take them to a city swallowed by darkness, and they would be dipped into the Quiet like hammered swords thrust into a shock of water, to test their mettle.
They would be handed over for fate to decide who would be forgiven and who would be consumed.
Whoever stumbled out alive—they were forgiven.
They were given a blank slate. Remade into a new man or woman.
It meant protection from Lord Erendi and his purity guard.
It also meant a lifetime of indentured servitude to the crown, because as soon as they stepped onto that train, they would be owned by the King of All, whether they survived or not.
In death, they would be his. If their rotting bones remained in the Quiet forever, they were still his forever.
If their weary bodies stumbled free, they would stumble into servitude to him.
So they would be forgiven, but forgiveness didn’t mean freedom, for freedom, they would have to do just a little more, or a little less.
They would have one of two remaining options to escape servitude.
Death was one option.
The other was, in very rare circumstances, the elevation of status above all other nobles, warriors, and guards in Lyra. They could Silence a monster and be recruited into the Godsguard.
In either case, it didn’t matter until they actually stepped on board the train. Until that moment, Ky and Rion could still be arrested or captured.
It was the only logical course of action, the only real option left.
Ky was the most influential person they could turn to, and his name was on the list of “deviants” to be “hollowed.” These were indisputable facts, but Eiko simply couldn’t come to terms with the reality that she was about to lose her two best friends.
They did everything together. Always.
They had grown up together.
They were her family.
“I love you.” A body slammed into her, slender arms wrapping around her, jasmine-scented hair brushing her cheek.
Rion was too precious for the Kingsweep. Too gentle and sweet to Silence a monster. Too soft to become a servant. Too beloved to die.
“Don’t worry. I’ll protect her.” A second set of arms wrapped around them both.
Ky. Lush, buttery fabric and the expensive wine they had drunk at dinner.
Ky, above anyone she knew, was a person of light.
She couldn’t bear the idea of him stepping into that pitch-black carriage, destined to be swallowed up by the dark.
She couldn’t bear to think about his brightness swallowed up by the Quiet for even a moment, even if he survived.
Eiko clung to them silently, tears streaming down her cheeks.
She didn’t know how to let go.
But they did.
They disentangled themselves and moved to the train. Someone pulled the bell that caused a faint ringing sound within, and Eiko heard the carriage door open. Her heart was beating so hard, she couldn’t hear much after that, but a man seemed to be speaking.
The world around her was always dark, but without her friends, it would be cold.
It would be empty without the colours Rion described.
It would be bleak without Ky’s commentary.
The market wouldn’t teem with happy, bustling activity; it would sharpen into a cacophony of belligerent, garish sounds.
Her drunken nights out wouldn’t be full of hilarious, predictable accidents; they would threaten danger around every blind corner.
Her friends were her world; they coloured every detail and softened every step.
Faced with the loss of them, something long-buried rose within her, clawing up from the cave she thought it had gone to die. But it wasn’t dead. That adventurous little girl within her still lived. She was just waiting for another opportunity. Another cave.
Another chance to be a little fool who runs into the dark.
“Eiko, wait—” Kaito called urgently, noticing a second too late that she had begun to move.
She was already touching the side of the train, her fingers tracing the polished lacquer of the exterior panel until her cane bumped against the steps.
She didn’t bother to ring the bell. The door hadn’t closed yet.
She raised a foot to the first step and felt the heat of a body alight behind her, but something suddenly whipped up past her shoulder.
Her brother let out a surprised, aggravated breath.
“No interfering.” It was a gruff voice. An older man. Somehow cold and deadly, even though it hinted at age. “A blind girl, is it?”
“Woman,” Eiko corrected, raising a hand to briefly touch the object that still hovered to the side of her shoulder. A cane. The guard was holding back her brother by the length of a cane.
“Still a girl to me. You won’t survive, blind girl. You should turn back. Whatever you’ve done won’t be as bad as what you’ll face.”
But what I lose will be worse.
“I thought you couldn’t reject anyone?” Eiko asked, anxious prickles creeping up her spine like bugs on exposed weatherboard, threatening to dig into her foundation and crumble her hasty plan.
She had survived the Quiet before. She could do it again. She was certain of it.
Mostly.
Sort of.
Either way, she wasn’t letting Rion and Ky—and sure, Kira as well, why not—face it on their own.
Ky and Rion—and sure, Kira, too—had not committed any crime, and Eiko would not let them enter the Quiet alone.
If she could save the prince from a Rustling, of all things, then she could save her friends, too. And Kira.
Probably.
Maybe.
It was worth a shot.
“You stubborn little asshole,” her brother muttered behind her, still held at a distance. Sometimes, it was like he could read her mind.
“I wasn’t rejecting you,” the gravelly old man countered, his cane lowering.
“I was warning you, but suit yourself, blind girl. By entering the Kingsweep, you are willingly accepting an indelible contract with the crown for service to the crown in perpetuity. Breach of this contract will be considered treason.”
“Great.” She stepped up onto the train, Kaito a step behind her. She had expected that, of course.
It was Rion’s family who came to their aid when their grandmother fell ill, and Kaito had to pick up extra mining shifts.
It was Rion’s generosity of time that kept their candles stocked and their kitchen stores full.
Her family’s kindness and care in the final years of their grandmother’s life had allowed Kaito to leave for work every day to keep them from falling into poverty.
They owed their lives to Rion and her family.
Kaito would have stepped onto that train one way or another.
Ren, however, was a surprise.
He didn’t owe Rion or Ky. But … maybe he was a fool just like her. Maybe their little ragtag group of five meant more to him than she realised.
“Don’t wanna be in a place that’ll do this to people,” Ren muttered beneath his breath, the words sounding squeezed out between clenched teeth. “Figure I’ll take my chances for a better life with the Quiet.”
Except Ren’s life wasn’t bad. He had parents who loved him, friends who adored him, and girls who giggled at all his lazy jokes.
He just … cared. He cared about justice, goodness, and fairness.
He cared about humanity.