Chapter 40 Quil
Quil
Elias staggered back from Sirsha’s blow, grimacing.
“Deserved, I think,” a voice said from behind Elias. The Blood Shrike emerged from the shadows of the canyon, looking distinctly unsympathetic. Quil didn’t bother speaking; Elias knew his thoughts on the matter.
“I second the Shrike,” Arelia muttered, glaring at the big man.
“I third it,” Tas said.
“I—” Sufiyan began, but Elias held up a hand.
“I get the point,” he said.
“I was just going to say I’m happy to see you, Aba.” Sufiyan gave his father a hug. “I did warn you that she’d punch you.”
“You did indeed.” Elias rubbed his jaw before sighing and turning to Sirsha.
Around them, the Jaduna pulled on their packs, talking quietly, clearly not wishing to interfere with whatever untoward violence was taking place before them.
All but Raani Sh’ban, who watched Elias with narrowed eyes and a simmering anger that reflected Quil’s own.
But if either of them planned to offer censure, there was no need. For Sirsha had planted herself before Elias, and she wasn’t holding back.
“I asked you if there was anything unnatural about the killer you wanted me to hunt,” Sirsha said. “You deflected. I asked you how personal this was for you. You deflected again. I was a fool, Elias Veturius, but I trusted you.”
A few of the Jaduna turned to watch, riveted, for it seemed as if Sirsha’s pain had claws and Elias’s was the face it wished to shred. Quil almost felt bad for him.
“Div feasted upon the heart of the one woman who helped me when I was at my weakest. She murdered my first Adah—my first friend. And now she is chained to me. Her weight is an anchor drowning me anew, every day. All because of the vow I made to you.
“You knew that there was no way out or you wouldn’t have asked for a blood vow.” Sirsha laughed, and it was sharp as the blade resting beneath her palm.
“I was so close to being free—did you know? I was going to buy an inn in the Southern Isles. Try to—to finally outrun every demon chasing me. I even found someone who—”
She looked at Quil then; the first time she’d met his eyes since she’d broken the Adah oath. It felt like a blow, even as she turned back to Elias.
“I found someone who loved me for my heart, mangled as it is. I’ve never met anyone who loves like Quil does, quietly and yet with every fiber of his being.
You do not have an Adah bond, Elias.” Sirsha’s voice trembled.
Her anger shuddered Quil’s very foundations.
He thought of the memories she’d shown him.
And though their coin was gone, he understood her pain, for it was as torturous as his own.
“You do not know its power,” Sirsha said. “Its permanence. But we had to give it up—both of us—because I’ve seen what Div can do with such a bond. I could not risk her using Quil. Hurting him.”
The silence that fell in the canyon was broken only by the wind, swirling the sand in eddies around their feet. Elias, always stoic, looked as if he wanted to sink into the earth.
“The consequences of the vow were more severe than I could have imagined,” Elias said. “I should have realized what I was asking. It was cruel and heartless. I do not expect forgiveness. But I truly am sorry.”
“A lot of people have said sorry to me lately, Martial,” Sirsha said, and Quil’s throat tightened at the bitterness in her voice. “But I don’t think any of them understand what that truly means.”
She turned her back on him, and disappeared into the crowd of Jaduna. Quil took a step to follow and then stopped, worried he’d only make her feel worse.
“Suf, Reli.” He nodded at Sirsha’s retreating figure. “Don’t let her leave for the jinn. Not until I talk to her.”
Sirsha needed to know what the jinn had said. Sirsha will suffer greatly. I do not foresee her survival. And Quil didn’t trust anyone else to effectively convey the gravity of the threat. But she didn’t wish to speak to him.
Get away. It hurts. It hurts. He’d wanted to help her when she froze in the portal. As he stepped through, he felt off-kilter, almost feverish. When he saw her face contorted in a rictus of pain, he didn’t think. He picked her up because he couldn’t imagine leaving her there.
Quil hurt too. More than he’d thought he could hurt and still have a functioning heart. The emptiness of the broken Adah ate at his insides. His body ached as it did when he had a racking fever. He wished desperately for sleep, dreamless and consuming.
But though he’d never experienced misery quite like this before, he did understand pain. And he knew the longer he dwelled on it, the deeper its claws would hook into him.
All this passed through his mind in a matter of seconds. There was one salve for this feeling. A cure his aunt taught him long ago.
“Let’s move,” he said to Elias, who was still looking after Sirsha with a grim expression. Quil nudged the big man. He’d have to sort out his guilt another time. “Lead on, Elias. Tas, with me. Shrike, catch me up.”
“Kegari have been trying to flush us out since sunset, almost twelve hours ago.” The Shrike fell in with Quil as they hurried through the dark canyon.
Distantly, another explosion rattled the earth.
The moon was a silver crescent, hazy through the dust drifting down from the canyon around them.
“Nearly a hundred dead. Thrice that injured.
Laia has her daughter Zuriya helping her, but she and the other healers are overrun.
“The encampment is about three miles north of us, and I’d have brought mounts, but there’s rockfall from the explosions. Not safe to travel at night. We’ve nearly twenty thousand soldiers hidden in these canyons, along with much of the court and another five thousand civilians.”
Quil grimaced. The royal court, made up of the Paters and Maters of the Empire’s Martial Gens, as well as Scholar representatives, would need careful handling.
“We’ve been moving through the badlands, never staying anywhere for long,” the Blood Shrike said. “Somehow, they found our camp. The Empress believes that Musa’s deception was discovered.”
“Is he alive?” Quil asked.
“Our spies saw the Tel Ilessi bring him into Estium, but that was three days ago,” the Shrike said. “We haven’t had a report out of the city since.”
She lowered her voice, glancing at the Jaduna arrayed ahead of and behind them.
“You could not have arrived at a better time, Your Highness. Pater Rufius has been stirring up trouble. And your aunt was injured in one of the first bombings just hours ago. She’s healing swiftly, but—” The Shrike’s jaw clenched.
“She is not herself. The Tel Ilessi gathers her forces in the north, hoping to flush us out and slaughter us.”
“I know these lands.” Tas glanced around. “Hunted here with Elias when I was younger. The ravines all merge into a plateau to the west. Not much water and no routes out. At least, none that don’t involve a great deal of climbing.”
“And she’s bombed the southern passages,” the Shrike said. “Our options for escape are limited. If the sky-dogs bomb the eastern paths—”
“They won’t,” Quil said, and raised his voice. “Raani Sh’ban, can you sense the attackers’ magic? Can you tell us how many Sails we’re dealing with?”
The Raani’s eyes unfocused for a moment. “Thirty Sails in the vicinity,” she said. “Two are circling. Most have wheeled north.”
“They’re going to Estium,” Elias said. “To rearm.”
“Which means we have a few hours before they return, if that,” Tas said. “Estium is less than two hundred miles away. Fully armed, a Sail can cover about eighty miles in an hour.”
Quil turned to the members of Kin Deshma. “Can you target the Sails that are circling?”
A dona’i named G’vindra nodded to the canyon walls. “When they come back around, I will bring them down,” they said. “Do you have climbing gear? I will require a clear line of sight.”
“We’ll get you what you need,” Quil said, and quickened his pace.
By dawn, the group reached the hastily constructed outbuildings and watchtower of the encampment.
The air was choked with smoke, and screams echoed from the maze of ravines and caves ahead.
At a horse pen, two grooms tried desperately to calm the panicked animals.
Soldiers emerged from the watchtower and the legionnaire leading them stopped short upon seeing Quil. He saluted, the relief on his face plain.
“Hail, Prince Zacharias!” he said, voice raspy from smoke. “The Empress told us to watch for you. She said you were on a mission. That you would save us all.” He took in the Jaduna behind Quil. “I see she was right.”
“I need you to escort this Jaduna”—he pointed to G’vindra—“up to the lip of the canyon. Follow any orders they give you.”
Only a few minutes later Quil strode into the main encampment—sprawling, crowded, and in absolute chaos.
Small groups of civilians attempted to corral escaped animals and screaming children.
Injured soldiers helped each other to a makeshift infirmary in one of the caves.
More troops climbed up to the top of the ravine, carrying long spears.
Still others attempted to clear rubble from a collapsed cave as trapped voices screamed from within.
Smoke and dust choked the air, and Quil’s eyes watered.
“I can help with this,” Raani Sh’ban said quietly from beside him. In seconds, a heavy, cool wind burst through the canyon. Clothes went flying, tents’ canvas flapped, and dust swirled, but after half a minute the ravine was cleared of the worst of the smoke.
Tas looked at her with an eyebrow raised. “I thought your magic was for tracking?”
“The wind was my first friend.” The Raani shrugged. “Likely it will be my last. Sometimes, it is willing to help me.”
“M’radh.” Quil spoke to one of the Raan-Ruku of Kin Khind. “Please head to the infirmary. Do what you can to help Laia.”
“It’s Prince Zacharias!” a voice called out, and the speaker was a young man in a healer’s smock, helping a soldier to a gurney. “The prince has returned!”