Chapter 54 Astrid #2
Mjolnir is somewhere nearby, waiting for Skylar’s signal, Kaida with him, although the little dragon has been instructed to stay hidden until they return.
If they don’t return, she has strict instructions to fly to Isla Draka.
Astrid twists her hands. She hopes it doesn’t come to that, not least because Kaida is unlikely to be able to make that journey on her own.
“Astrid?” Skylar gently prizes her hands apart. “We’re going to be alright. We’re all going to be alright.”
Astrid swallows. Nods. Checks on Bastet. Now that he’s rested, she can tap into her Gift. She reaches for that connection between her and Skylar, though she doesn’t have to seek it out like she usually does, it’s just—there. Waiting.
“Hold on to your butts,” Skylar says, and punches her hand into the force field.
Skylar goes rigid. The barrier begins to spark around her fist. Her arm vibrates with the effort, her face is screwed up tight, and Astrid can see it. The energy flowing into Skylar, flowing through her, as she draws it inside her. Feeding on it.
Easy, Astrid says. Take it easy.
Almost. Finished. Skylar gasps, then wrenches her fist back and the barrier fails completely.
Now that it’s not there, Astrid can feel it—or the absence of it anyway.
And as it drops away, so does the illusion.
Before, where there had been only the canyon wall, there’s a large crevice and a passageway set between two huge stone pillars, as tall as Mjolnir.
They’re standing at the foot of the pillar on the right, and they poke their heads around to peer down into the tunnel.
The guards. Skylar jerks her head toward two soldiers standing at either side of the tunnel entrance, gripping a spear each.
Stars, they’ve not even noticed the barrier’s down. Some guards.
I almost feel bad killing them.
Don’t. Astrid doesn’t mean to sound so sharp. Don’t kill them. Just knock them out and we’ll tie them up.
With what, exactly, Little Witch?
Astrid stares at her, because she’s right. They only have the clothes on their backs and the few weapons they had in the arena.
It’s them or us, Skylar says more gently. It’s them or Zryan.
Astrid closes her eyes briefly, then nods at Skylar. This is no game, this is war. This is the fate of her queendom and of the people she loves. This is for the future.
I’ll make it quick, Skylar says, and she does. They’re dead within seconds.
“Bastet, can you hide the bodies?” Skylar asks.
I AM NOT SOME GRUNT TO PERFORM YOUR MENIAL LABOR, EVEN IF YOU ARE MY SOUL-BONDED’S MATE.
“Menial labor? She’s asking you to cover our tracks, not scrub the Hel-damned floor, you buffoon.”
He harrumphs and skulks over to the two men, dragging them one at a time behind a boulder.
Skylar’s eyes unfocus. “I’ve told Mjolnir. It’s time. Let’s go.”
Astrid doesn’t need telling twice. She takes off at a run, Skylar’s footsteps falling in sync with hers. The tunnel becomes pitch-black within moments. She rotates her wrists, whispering, “Lys,” casting witch lights above them. “Tell me if more guards are near and I’ll lose the lights.”
“Why are we running?” Skylar says, not even a little out of breath.
Because I’ve had enough of waiting, Astrid replies.
It’s only been one day and one night since Zryan was taken; but so much can happen in that time and the closer she gets, the more urgency she feels.
The more anxious. Mjolnir hasn’t been able to reach him mind to mind, even when he’s been close enough to the Heart.
Astrid remembers what Jelani said about a Nullifier and wonders if they affect a rider’s ability to communicate with dragons as well as their power.
It’s been a whole day since Zryan kissed her goodbye, and over her dead body will it have been the last time they ever get to.
“Stop,” Skylar hisses. They skid to a halt. “Up ahead.” Skylar looks at Bastet.
ANOTHER TWO, he says. The guards don’t stand a chance. Skylar’s gaze shifts to Astrid and she sighs.
“Do it.”
Skylar watches her, then says, “It’s done.”
Goddess, Astrid can’t even see where the two guards are, and Skylar was able to kill them without taking her eyes off Astrid? She realizes then just how easy it would have been for Skylar to end her in that arena.
I CANNOT SCENT ANYONE ELSE. AT LEAST, NOT THE USUAL SMELL OF HUMANS.
“What is it?” Skylar asks.
I… AM NOT SURE.
“Does it not feel a little too easy?” Astrid says.
“Let’s not look a gift dragon in the mouth. And you’re forgetting, we’re the rightful guardians of the Heart now—maybe the place recognizes that. Has let us pass.”
“Maybe.” But Astrid is doubtful. There’s a prickling along her neck that she just can’t shake, telling her something is amiss here.
A pang of guilt sticks her right in the ribs when she thinks of the four guards—four lives snuffed out.
It shouldn’t be that easy to take a life, but what choice do they have when the Vatrans have proven they want Astrid and her family dead? Want Skylar dead.
They carry on, Astrid ignoring the wrongness she feels as they pass the two slumped bodies, until the tunnel opens up into a vast cavernous space, large enough that Bastet would be able to fly high above them.
It looks oddly like the inside of a giant beehive, with thousands upon thousands of tall hexagonal cells set in the cliff faces, only they seem to be made of tree bark.
Ropes of vines and branches sprawl around and between the cells, connecting each one to thick trunks of bark that run vertically and disappear into the ground.
No, not the ground. But streams that run either side of the path. Astrid is perplexed.
“What the Vaar is this place?” Skylar whispers, and for the first time she sounds afraid.
Bastet paws at the earth, nervous. It smells of decay and damp, a little coppery and unnatural. Astrid raises her hands and the witch lights disperse, their soft orange glow lighting up the cavern as they go.
Her knees almost buckle.
Skylar grips Astrid’s arm, and she’s glad, because Astrid’s not sure she’d still be standing.
Inside each cell the branches and vines merge and twist, creating a cocoon. And inside each cocoon is a person.
All of them dead.
A strangled sound comes from Skylar, and Astrid manages to catch her before she stumbles forward.
“Cam.” In that one word Astrid can hear her heart break. She drags Skylar, who looks like she’s about to climb the walls and check every cell for her friend.
“Don’t, Skylar, no.”
Bastet nudges his big head into the dragon heir, supporting her other side.
This, this is what they’ve been doing with the Champions.
They’re not being brought to the Heart to guard it; they’re being brought here to, what?
Astrid forces herself to look at the nearest hexagonal cell, at the young woman captured within it, only her waxen face visible beneath the winding branches.
Her eyes are wide open, milky white, indicating to Astrid she’s been dead for a while.
Astrid scans down, and what she sees makes her vomit.
It splatters noisily onto the ground. Skylar lifts Astrid’s hair back, rubs between her shoulder blades. Like Jessa once did.
“They were put in there alive,” she whispers.
“Look at her hands.” Skylar does, and Astrid feels her flinch.
Because the woman’s nails are ruined from where she tried to claw the branches off her.
“Those vines, they’re not flowing in. They’re taking something out.
” She doesn’t want to say what. She doesn’t want to be right.
Skylar slaps a hand over her mouth. “Blooded,” she finally manages. “That’s why they’re taking Blooded: to drain them of their magic.”
Astrid wishes she could argue, wants to say that’s not possible, but the evidence is right here in front of her. The dead don’t lie.
“That’s how they’ve kept the Vitalas supply up.
By using people. Killing people.” Goddess, she’s going to be sick again.
“They’ve been powering The Rok, kept the air-conditioning running by sacrificing their own fucking citizens!
” She’s yelling—she can’t stop herself. “Bastet, can you sense anyone alive here?”
The panther shakes his large head, eyes downcast. I CAN SENSE LIFE, BUT IT IS FAINT AND FAR AWAY. THERE IS TOO MUCH DEATH HERE FOR ME TO KNOW.
“We have to find them,” Skylar says, frantically, but Astrid shakes her head. She hates herself for what she’s about to say.
“No, Skylar. We will help whoever is still alive, but not yet. We don’t know how many Blooded there are, or even where they are, and we don’t have time. We find Zryan. We find the Heart. Then we get the prisoners out.”
A growl slips from Skylar. Her grief has morphed into something more insidious.
“They brought him here,” she says quietly. “They put him in one of these abominations and they drained him of his power—his life. He died here. Alone. Scared.” She looks at the woman’s ruined hands again, and Astrid recognizes the stillness that settles over her mate.
Astrid takes her hand. She can’t allow Skylar to lose herself, not here. Not yet.
“It’s unfathomable, what they’ve done. And I’ll help you deliver justice when the time comes, I promise you that.
But we need to find Zryan.” She places a palm on Skylar’s cheek and forces her mate to look at her.
“Please, Skylar. I need to get him out of here.” Her voice is raspy, unfamiliar.
She’s trying to hold it together, trying to stay calm, for Skylar.
But this place. This graveyard. The king wouldn’t put Zryan here, there’s no way. He’s his son.