Chapter 24 #2
Guilt knots my stomach as I stand and search his body for injury – burns or blisters. ‘The flames. I’ve never seen starshine do that before. I-I don’t know what happened. Are you hurt?’
A flicker of something passes over Blayze’s face. Fear? He looks away. ‘I’m fine.’
Still disgusted by my magic, then. And with good reason.
‘We have to go. The others are waiting at the gate.’
‘So, everyone’s all right?’ I make the sign of the Star.
His jaw tightens as he pulls himself to his feet, but he doesn’t answer my question.
‘There’s been a change of plan. I’m to bring you to them.’ One arm brandishing the stolen mace, he takes me by the hand and drags me closer to the wall. ‘Stay in the shadows.’
‘Are the others hurt?’ I whisper at his heels, as Blayze leads me through the sleeping city.
He stiffens, warm fingers tightening around my palm. ‘Briar suffered the brunt of it. Delphine’s close to the edge too. And Fifi…’ His voice cracks.
Where is Serafine? She hardly ever leaves his side.
‘They did their damnedest to break me too, but I’m used to punishment. Used to dank, dark places.’ He turns to look at me, voice flat as his eyes.
It’s not a long walk to the city gates, but even the streets are spies here, echoes publicising our every step.
I pause. Hold my breath. Footsteps. Not just ours.
Blayze drops my hand, throws an arm out, flattening me to the wall.
He raises a finger to his lips. I shiver, all too aware of the warmth and weight of his arm across my chest, the heady amber scent of his skin.
The steps draw closer.
Four boots. Two guards.
Blayze waits till they’re almost upon us, then launches himself at them. A feral snarl twists his lips as he swings the mace at the closest guard. I hunch over and cover my face as a sickening wet thud rings through the deserted street.
There’s a scuffle. A single cry. Then silence. I don’t look to see what Blayze does to the second guard.
Blayze catches me by the elbow.
‘Open your eyes.’
His face is streaked with the guards’ blood. Its rust sullies the air. His eyes are star-bright, his cheeks flushed. It’s as if I’m seeing Blayze for the first time – his true self. Astrophel was right about him. He’s a predator: a highly trained, highly efficient, cold-blooded killer.
‘I’m sorry you had to see that,’ he mutters, turning his back. ‘That was for Serafine.’
‘She’s not…’ I can’t bring myself to finish the sentence.
‘She’s alive. But that bastard tortured her. Ripped out her fire-feathers for sport – for his experiments.’ Blayze shudders. ‘They got off lightly. I should have made them suffer. Slowly. Her cries will haunt me forever.’
We turn another corner and there’s the city wall. The gate’s ajar and three more guards lie motionless on the ground. It smells like a forge. Pools of dark, sticky liquid puddle around them, ink-spills staining the fresh page of the snow. All three bodies have been stripped of furs and weapons.
So, this is how Blayze acquired that mace.
Blayze surveys the gruesome scene. An expression of grim satisfaction settles on his hollowed face. ‘I’ll need to add another five white flames to my sleeve.’
I look away from the bodies, gut churning, and try not to think about what I’m stepping in as Blayze leads me through the gateway.
As we leave the Last City, I’m not sure what troubles me more: that Blayze just confirmed he’s a killer many times over, or how little that knowledge repulses me.
*
MY HEART LEAPS at the sight of the rest of the Quaternity huddled a short distance beyond the city walls, sheltering in a small thicket of trees. The snow-dappled branches are slanted as Noelani’s calligraphy, swept sidelong by centuries of fierce-wind. I break into a run.
Safe. They’re all safe.
But as I draw closer, I notice how pale and emaciated they are.
They all wear the same haunted, dead-eyed expression as Blayze – even Astrophel.
Delphine, Briar and Serafine bear physical wounds too.
Serafine is missing two of her three tail-feathers, and looks smaller, more vulnerable without them.
Fresh bruises bloom like moonflowers over Delphine’s skin.
Puncture marks riddle Briar’s body like wormwood holes, and she’s painfully thin.
The distance from my cell window disguised the worst of it. It hurts to look at them.
Blayze was right. Those guards did deserve to suffer.
I remember the crack of Astrophel’s whip against Briar’s side. If he had any hand in this, then he deserves to suffer too.
‘What happened?’ I whisper.
But before anyone can answer, I see them. Four enormous cragstalkers, prowling the thicket. The eerie wail of a horn sounds in the distance.
‘We have to go.’ Astrophel threads his way through the trees, towards the pack. Before I can process what’s happening, he clambers onto the largest cat.
They’re roughly the same size as a horse, with short white pelts and eyes the deep violet of a dusky sky.
Their paws are larger than my head, their claws capable of carving solid ice.
In the Lustrous Age, Izarius taught me packs like this helped excavate the Ice Steps on the Astral Mountain, enabling the creation of the Starfields.
But that was before the Sickening drove them from the peak, and close to extinction.
Who’s to say if they’re still friends to us?
Astrophel grabs a fistful of the cragstalker’s fur in one hand, anchoring himself. He reaches his other hand out to me.
I step back. We’re not seriously going to ride them?
But the others are mounting the cats too, and I realise they’re laden with packs.
Blayze and Tansy ride alone; Maris sits with Delphine, who looks on the point of collapse.
Briar is too weak for anyone to ride. Indeed, she’s so wasted and maimed, I doubt she’ll be able to support her own weight for long.
Horns sound again. Louder this time. Closer. I can’t see the guards yet, but it’s only a matter of time. Swallowing, I place my hand in Astrophel’s, allow him to draw me up behind him.
I’m prepared for the cragstalker’s heavy musk, but its coat feels nothing like I expected. It’s coarse and wiry, where I envisaged sleekness.
‘Keep hold of my waist.’
I do as Astrophel says, conscious of how closely pressed our bodies are. There are so many questions I need to ask. So many things I don’t understand.
Opal flames shimmer in the trees ahead of us. Orthriel materialises out of the darkness.
‘I’ll hold them off as long as I can.’
The deep peal of my Guardian’s voice hits me like a glancing blow. I haven’t heard them speak aloud, haven’t even seen them, for so long. I thought… I feared… But they look all right.
Their semblance of a body is wavering worse than ever and their heartcrystal is dim, but it’s still aglow.
Confusion clouds my relief. Orthriel is involved in Astrophel’s schemes?
How long have they been plotting together?
How did I not see any of this? Isn’t my magic supposed to be strengthening now I’ve come of age?
So much for being Arcelia’s prophesied saviour, the last Starborn Seer. I’m still just as blind as ever.
I search Orthriel’s face. ‘You’re not coming with us?’
‘I’ll see you have a head start first.’ They look to Galtair, to the guards spilling through the gateway. Their lips thin. ‘I’ll explain later. You must go.’
The cragstalker carrying us slides onto its haunches. Its tufted ears flatten. Fur and muscle flex beneath my thighs as it springs forwards, catapulting us down the hillside.
‘You owe me an explanation.’ I have to shout over the wind. ‘I thought you’d betrayed us.’
Astrophel is close enough I could read him, but after tonight’s revelations, I have no faith in my supposed powers of insight. I need to hear him say it – to hear him deny it.
Astrophel looks over his shoulder at me. ‘It’s what I wanted you to think.’ His hair is wind-mussed, silver strands falling across his eyes. ‘But now’s not the time to explain. Later, I promise.’
With that, he turns away.
Legs undulating like crashing waves, the cragstalker lopes down the hill, moving north, carrying us away from Galtair.
With every lurch, my stomach leaps into my mouth and I tighten my hands around Astrophel’s waist. I’m surprised he’s still able to breathe.
Pine trees streak past, and snowflakes swirl like ashes through the air.
Ahead, the moonslight reveals flat plains and, looming in the distance, the spine of the Desolate Peaks.
Seven vertebrae leading straight to the Astral Mountain.