Chapter 43 #2
Yet, somehow, I must. Passing through the waterfall is the only way to reach the third and final cave.
Delphine is already shucking her clothes and wading into the pool. She splashes water on her face, the fronds of her hair turning from inky-blue to shell-pink as gauzy fan-gills unfurl beneath her ears. Her legs shimmer, skin shifting to scales. Even now, the transformation steals my breath.
‘That’s the source?’ Blayze folds his arms and jerks his chin towards the waterfall, as Serafine resettles on his shoulder.
He holds my gaze and the air crackles between us. Is it possible he’s remembering the last time we stood together in front of a waterfall? Other, warmer memories of the Fade Falls surface. My fingers itch to reach for him. But his gaze hardens, and he turns his back on me.
Perhaps all he remembers is the vow I made. The vow I broke.
The waterfall is underwhelming. Blayze is right about that.
Little more than a trickle when compared to the thundering cascades on Nimbi.
But despite its modest size, the gush is loud, almost deafening up close.
Unease creeps over my skin, settling into my bones, the longer I stand facing it.
And not just because of my ordeal in Nimbi, not just because I can’t swim and I’m terrified at the prospect of having to wade through the water to descend to the next cave.
We can’t hear the wings of the night-birds, or anything else that might be hunting us, over this tumult.
We’re vulnerable here. We need to move.
I step closer to the water’s edge, steeling myself to cross it. But then I stop. Perhaps this muffling effect can play to our advantage.
The night-birds are on the other side of this pool.
Serafine made it clear she’s willing to sacrifice her fire-feather, lowering her head – an unmistakable affirmation – when I asked her at the crater, but Blayze hasn’t agreed to it being pulled.
Yet, with this torrent to screen us, now is as good a time as any to carry out the task no one wants to perform.
I turn to him, raise my voice so he’s able to hear me, though I don’t dare raise my eyes to his. ‘I need your answer, Blayze. If we’re doing this, we should do it now.’
He braces, as if guarding against a physical blow. For a moment, there’s silence. Delphine stops splashing in the water. Maris and Astrophel go very still. We all hold our breath.
‘Very well.’ The words fall from his lips, biting as drops of vinegar on an open wound.
Tansy places a hand on his arm. ‘Would you like me to do it?’
Blayze shrugs away from her. ‘No. It has to be me.’
Slowly, he lifts Serafine from his shoulder and cradles her in one arm, his movements so gentle it pains my chest. With his other hand, he reaches for the last of her tail-feathers. Serafine lies still, staring up at him.
‘You agree to this?’
Serafine blinks her assent.
Blayze shuts his eyes, heaves a heavy sigh and wrenches the feather from her body in one swift, brutal motion. A screech, more piercing than any sound I’ve ever heard, splits the air.
‘I’ve got you, Fifi. I’ve got you,’ Blayze croons, his face wracked as she falls limp in his arms.
Maris rushes to his side, slips an arm around his waist. He doesn’t acknowledge her, doesn’t lift his eyes from Serafine.
My chest’s a vice. I can’t move either, can’t wrest my eyes from Serafine’s lifeless body. It’s only when she finally stirs in his arms, I’m able to breathe again.
Blayze steps towards me, thrusts the fire-feather in my direction. It glows brighter now, illuminating the entire cave with a wash of golden light much bolder than the milky luminescence of the scattered starstones.
‘Shouldn’t you hold it?’ I ask, still not daring to meet his eye.
Afraid of what I’ll find there, if I do.
The memory of the Husks swirls to the surface of my mind.
The Sistertouched mustn’t dabble with Aethers we’ve no affinity for, and when Serafine calls upon the feather, it will flare. I can’t wield Flame-Aether.
He dips his head towards me, warm breath tickling my ear, my throat. Hope flickers in my chest. Perhaps he’s going to forgive me, after all?
‘I’ve no mastery over my curse. I can’t fireweave – I won’t be able to control it,’ he whispers.
‘But you might. Like in Galtair, when I shielded myself from your starshine. With your affinity for Star-Aether, I think you’ll be able to blunt its power – temper the force of the flare so you can use the feather against the night- birds, without reducing the rest of us to ashes.
You won’t be wielding Flame-Aether, only containing it. ’
My tiny spark of hope gutters out.
His words contain no forgiveness, no warmth. Just cold tactics.
I reach for the feather, flinching as our fingers brush. It’s warm to the touch but doesn’t burn – not yet, anyway.
Blayze draws back, putting distance between us. I look at him properly. His eyes aren’t filled with hate, as I feared – it’s worse. His stare is vacant, as if he doesn’t see me at all.
I swallow the hurt. I don’t have time to wallow in it. I need to focus all my energy, all my attention, on the task in front of me.
‘Does everyone remember the steps to enact the blood rite?’
The others nod.
I clear my throat. ‘Astrophel, Delphine, this is your last chance. We don’t need you for this; you can still turn back, save your—’
‘Over my dead, scaled body.’ Delphine scowls up at me from the edge of the pool. She and Maris share a lingering look, linking hands.
‘And I swore to protect you,’ Astrophel says. ‘I’m not leaving. I’ll never…’ He bites his lip. ‘A member of The Nine never goes back on their word.’ His eyes darken, but his aura flares so sunshine-bright it bleeds into my second-sight without my having to scry for it.
Something inside me relaxes. The part that didn’t want to admit how much I’ve come to depend on Astrophel’s quiet steadying presence. The part that hoped he’d stay.
I pat the stiletto tucked safe at my waist. ‘I have the blade. Tansy, you’ve brought the vessel?’
She gestures to her pocket.
‘The Elemagi drew their offerings from their brands…’ Instinctively, my gaze drifts to Blayze. He looks away, scowling. ‘Noelani’s letter didn’t specify where your offerings should be collected from.’
‘Fingers will be easiest,’ Tansy says briskly. ‘Should we gather them now – better here surely, without the night-birds to contend with?’
I chew my lip. ‘The letters didn’t say if the blood needs to be fresh for the rite, only that the offerings must be freely given… We can’t risk it not working.’
Astrophel frowns, his gaze drifting to my stained hair. ‘Should you be doing this? Orthriel warned you against invoking Shadow Lore. Aren’t you worried that—’
‘Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it,’ I say, interrupting him. ‘We still have to defeat the night-birds.’
Astrophel is right to worry, and not just for me. We know, at least we think we know, the price of me invoking Shadow Lore, but who knows what effect a blood rite will have on the other members of the Quaternity? With the exception of Blayze, they don’t have brandmagic to protect against it.
‘First things first though,’ I say, turning towards the torrent. ‘We need to cross this waterfall. There should be a tunnel behind it leading down to the last cave.’
I clutch the feather tighter, lift it high in the air so it won’t get submerged, and turn to face the pool. Delphine is content exploring its depths, but every instinct tells me it’s dangerous, that I should run. But I can’t. Won’t.
Water sucks at my boots and my legs start to shake.
My feet are lead weights. I try to lift them – just an inch off the ground – but they refuse to move.
I take a breath, then another. But all I can think about is the burn in my lungs when I fell into the Fade Falls, blackness swirling in as I choked.
I stumble. Astrophel darts to my side, but Blayze gets there first. He grabs my wrist, stops me from falling.
The action, the tight bracelet of his fingers, takes me back to our first kiss. He held me in the exact same way.
‘Be careful,’ he murmurs, releasing me quickly to better support Serafine, still cradled in his arms.
It’s not much. Not forgiveness – not even close. But it’s a start, and it gives me the courage I need to step into the pool.
I gasp as icy water swirls around my ankles, calves, knees, waist. The bottom of the pool hollows out quickly, the water soon comes up to my chest. I dredge my legs through the water, crossing the pool as fast as they’ll carry me.
I don’t want to stay submerged for a second longer than I have to.
Soon, I’m in front of the cascade, water churning, splashing up at me, spattering my face.
I take a deeper breath, screw my eyes and lips shut and walk through the tumbling wall of water.
The cold drenches my hair, soaks through the remaining dry patches of my clothes and trickles down my cheeks.
The memories of Nimbi flood back thicker and faster, but I keep wading.
I don’t stop till the waterfall is streaming behind me and the pool shallows again, a wall of moss-dappled rock rising before me.
My clothes cling heavy as I wave Serafine’s feather in a slow arc left and right, searching the gloom for an entrance to the tunnel. My hand stills. It’s there, just as the map promised. A ledge at about shoulder-height. Now to haul myself onto it.
The splash of the others wading into the pool behind me echoes around the cavern as I place the feather between my chattering teeth, freeing my hands to climb.
The moss is slimy, and my shaking fingers can’t make purchase, my sodden breeches rendering my movements slow and clumsy.
I lean my forehead on the cool, sludgy rock and let my shoulders drop.
I stay like that for a count of five, then straighten, push the dripping hair out of my eyes, and reach again.
I clamp my hands on the ledge and heave, half-expecting to slip back again as I have half-a-dozen times already.
But this time, when I drag myself up, arms circle my waist and lift me, bearing my weight so I can scramble onto the ridge.
My heart soars as I turn. For one blissful second, I think Blayze has come to my aid again.
But it’s Astrophel standing below me, drenched and shivering.
I remove the feather from my mouth, smoothing its precious copper barbs till they all lie flat, and mumble my thanks.
Astrophel inclines his head towards me, then lifts himself onto the ledge with a groan.
There’s an opening in the rock face. I bring the feather close to it and instantly wish I hadn’t. This tunnel is smaller than I hoped, only wide enough for us to crawl through single file. Less a passageway than a slit.
Astrophel squeezes my free hand. ‘I’m right behind you.’
*
I STOP ONLY to wipe away water as it trickles into my eyes.
These I keep carefully lowered, as I crawl and scrape my waterlogged body along the tunnel, taking care not to catch my palms or knees on the glistening, blade-sharp outcrops of starcrystal.
I don’t dare check behind me, but the rhythmic slosh of wet fabric being shunted across rock must mean the others are still there.
That knowledge eases my churning stomach, quietens all my brandsong’s whispered warnings of danger.
I try to block these out as best I can, afraid if I allow my mind to wander, even for a second, panic will overwhelm me.
One step. One step at a time.
I close my eyes and repeat the mantra that got me up this mountain, imagine I’m crawling in an open meadow, even back on the freezing mountain face. Anywhere but here.
Slowly, the passage widens, veering to the left. Nearly there. My already shaking limbs tremble harder.
The feather I’m clutching looks fragile and insignificant. It’s hard to believe all our hopes rest on so slight a thing. I can only pray, when Serafine summons its power, this feather is enough to keep us safe.
A musky stench like urine-soaked sawdust hits me first, and then I hear it.
Not the murmur of a waterfall this time. The unmistakable whisper of wings.