Chapter 11
Of course, the one frontier we’ve not yet been able to breach has been to cross the Basrol River in Astola and enter into ancient fae territory itself. It remains a priority for Empress Lorna and the Empire to finally expand our interests and secure our stronghold on fae magic for the next century.
—The History of Astola by Henry Wiltshire
Yaseema
They said it had been hundreds of years since anyone had crossed the River, but I knew that was a lie. The night my mother left, she’d held a fae artifact much like the one gracing my wrist now. She’d kissed me goodbye, and promised she was going to fix everything.
She’d never come back.
Now I stood at the edge of the River, just like she had, ready to take the same journey.
Even if you were able to cross the wall, the songs and stories told us that nothing was worth the agony, the creatures waiting on the other side to feast on your flesh, or the barbaric hordes ready to capture you if the former failed.
The fae would steal your babies from their cribs, devour your memories, and eat your dreams while sitting on your chest as you slept.
Nothing was worth it, I repeated to myself.
Except this was.
There was something on the other side that would put right everything the Citadel had done, that meant all the fae relics stolen by the Empress wouldn’t matter. Not if the wall came down and the flow of life magic was restored to Astola.
I pulled out my mother’s journal and read over the entry and illustration detailing Queen Azari’s crown that would bring down the fae wall in the River.
The crown was set in gold, like a braid of sunlight over the hair. In the center, a tikka hung, also woven in gold.
This was the source of the dead fae Queen’s power.
The haath phool I’d found that graced my hand would allow me to cross the River, to pass through the magical barrier created by Queen Azari. But her crown was the only thing strong enough to bring it down.
Above the page in the journal was a hastily sketched jasmine flower, its petals turned out. It was a simple design, but I’d know it anywhere. The jasmine had been the mark of the Court of River, the Court that the dead Queen had ruled over.
The River was loud, the rapids fierce, turning the emerald water white and angry. I could barely hear my own thoughts over it.
And still the water beckoned, the barrier between the fae and human worlds calling out to me.
Over time, people in Astola had begun lining up along the edge, praying to the fae to save us from the famine, drinking the water in the hopes that it could cure deadly ailments and disease, watering their crops with the River water in an attempt to get them to grow again.
But it never worked.
The magical wall that cut through the center of the River must have prevented any fae power from entering Astola.
There were no boats on the River—you could travel down it, but if you crossed the magical line in the middle it would slice your vessel in two like a hot knife through butter. Remains would wash along the shores; guts and blood and innards—a warning to all those who tried to cross the barrier.
There was no one here now. In the midday sun it was just me, the rushing River, and the crickets, their shrill chirps a warning.
I stepped into the water, the haath phool adorning my hand, and sucked in a breath at the harshness of the cold.
I scooped up some of the cold River in my hands and drank, savoring the light sweetness on my tongue. It was the last drink I would have in the human world before I journeyed to steal an ancient crown from the fae.
“Yaseema, wait.”
A voice echoed across the water, followed by the click of a rifle, and I froze.
My legs swayed with the current of the River as I turned to look over my shoulder, the voice I heard causing my body to tighten in anger and wariness.
“How did you find me?”
“It wasn’t hard, when we realized you had the bracelet,” Sophie said, her thin frame illuminated by the bright sun.
“We?”
Another click of rifles, and I scanned the forest behind her. Citadel soldiers lined the trees, their guns pointed at me.
Winthrop stood behind Sophie, dragging someone with him. My heart clenched as I realized it was the frail body of my nani, her fierce eyes alight.
“Give me the bracelet, or I will kill her.” He didn’t mince words. There was no cajoling or pleading. His blue eyes were cold.
My nani’s were not. They were blazing hot, the same fire as my father’s before he was killed in the uprising against the Citadel, and I saw what she must have been like as a girl, enduring all the Citadel had wrought on our kingdom.
“Yaseema, don’t listen to them. Don’t give up this chance. Get out of here. Do what you need to do. I will always be beside you, no matter what.”
My heart was in my throat, my eyes burning as tears streaked down my cheeks, falling into the River at my feet. This was my chance to leave, to fix everything, to perhaps save Astola.
But at what cost?
Could I watch them kill the woman who had raised me when both my mother and father were gone?
“Let her go!” I screamed, though I didn’t move from the water. Indecision warred within me, though my heart begged me to go to my grandmother.
But my head knew it might not make any difference. The excavator threw my grandmother to the ground and kicked her side. She screamed, and the sound tore through me, ripping my heart from my chest, my decision made for me.
There was no way I could leave her like this. I cried out, lurching toward her. Then, Winthrop withdrew his rapier, the thin blade glinting in the blinding light.
“Wait!” I cried, my eyes wet with tears.
“Come back here, or she dies today.” The excavator lined up his sword with her neck.
“Stop!” I shouted. “Please, don’t hurt her.”
I met Nani’s gaze.
Those fiery eyes. The love she had for me and Safiyya. My grandmother had become a mother to me when my own had left, and a father when he’d been executed. She was the person who had raised me, the person I knew best.
And because of that, I knew what she was telling me to do from her expression.
I shook my head, not willing to entertain what she was asking. I couldn’t let her be killed while I ran away. That wasn’t the person she taught me to be.
“Stop,” I said, my voice careful and clear, meeting the bright blue eyes of the lead excavator. “I’m coming back.”
Winthrop eased his sword away, a sneer pasted on his lips. “Good. Now get out of the water and hand me that bracelet.”
My grandmother’s gaze pleaded with me. “Go,” she mouthed.
“I can’t,” I whispered, barely making a sound. Her eyes were like a tether connecting to mine, and I was unable to look away. I couldn’t just leave her here.
I wouldn’t.
Instead I took a step toward her.
“No!” she screamed, her face twisted with anguish.
Winthrop moved to kick her again, but stopped as a shot rang out, echoing through the forest and landing before anyone realized what had happened.
Red bloomed across Winthrop’s chest as he lifted a hand there, his face leaching of color, blood gushing from between his fingers.
Nani screamed and crawled away from him as his body dropped to the ground.
Shock numbed my limbs. My body swayed with the force of the River but I could barely feel it.
Dead. The lead excavator was dead.
Citadel soldiers cried out, aiming their rifles behind them at the trees, shooting blindly at an unknown enemy. Pandemonium was all around me, but I picked out a familiar shout, which caused my heart to lurch once more.
“Yaseema, get out of here!”
Safiyya.
My eyes found her in the trees, sitting in a thick of branches, her rifle poised and ready.
She looked as though a weak river current could knock her over. A sheen of sweat coated her forehead and her lips were white and cracked.
And yet, that didn’t stop her from firing another shot at a soldier with her rusted rifle.
“Rebels!” shouted Citadel soldiers. Bullets flew at them in response, and I jumped back in surprise. There was more than just Safiyya in the trees, other were Astolans helping her.
Amidst all this panic and screaming and shots, a low voice cut through. “Yaseema, you have to go now.”
My eyes refocused on Nani, now at the riverbank watching me, her hand curled in her dupatta. “You can’t stay here. Cross the River while they are distracted.”
“But—”
“Listen to me, we don’t get a chance like this more than once. We can rebel. We can fight our small battles, chip away at them while they continue to eradicate us all. But even if you don’t come back, this will give us something that’s in short supply these days. Hope.”
She stepped into the River, water soaking her soft indigo kurta as the current flowed around us. The sound of guns faded with the rushing of the water, until it felt like just me and her.
“You will give us the hope needed to start a revolution. And you have to go now, Yaseema, or I fear there will be nothing left of us to come back to.”
A stray shot whizzed past us in the water, and Nani and I ducked down.
“I don’t want to leave you like this.” I clung to her shoulders like I did when I was younger and first discovered my mother had left me.
She pressed her hands to my cheeks, smoothing away the tears. “I know. But I’m always going to be beside you. No matter where you are.”
And with that, she shoved me backward into the River.
I fell back into the water, the yelling and gunshots becoming muffled when my head dipped below the surface. Bullets streamed through the water alongside me.
I didn’t have time to think, didn’t have time to wonder if the fae Queen’s haath phool on my hand would work, or if I would be sliced in half before I could blink.
Instead, the current pulled me to the center of the River.
I came up for air once, calling for Safiyya and my grandmother, but I couldn’t see through the blur of water over my spectacles.
Queen Azari’s bracelet and hand chain on my wrist grew hot, nearly burning my skin, and my scream was silenced by the River. But as fast as it turned hot, it became cool again.
I struggled against the current, but it already had me. I was held by the magic of the River, the border wall clinging to me as I fought to escape it.
It was like falling through an impenetrable spiderweb or sinking into quicksand. And I was quickly losing the fight.
Why was I fighting? I had been searching for this relic for so long the idea of finally being able to cross the River felt unbelievable.
You have to go now, Yaseema, or I fear there will be nothing left of us to come back to.
You will give us the hope needed to start a revolution.
My tears were hot against my cool cheeks, and instead of trying to swim back to my grandmother, I embraced the pull of the River and swam to its center.
Leaving them was like ripping my arm off, but Nani was right. Staying and not giving them this chance was even worse. If I could stop the famine, stop the Citadel, fight against the Empire in some way, I had to try.
For them, for my mother, for Astola, I needed to try.
The water in the center of the River was thick and languid and sticky, but as I began to kick and swim using my arms, the haath phool on my hand carved a path through it.
Until finally the wall seemed to release me with a lurch, and I spiraled in the water, my limbs not used to the lack of resistance after feeling like I’d just swum through yogurt.
My legs worked ferociously, kicking until I surfaced, my head popping up as I expelled a heavy gasp. Immediately I whirled around to see what was going on behind me.
But there was nothing there.
The side of the River I had just been on looked like a placid forest, with no one standing on the bank, no guns, no chaos, no fighting. I couldn’t even hear any sounds—not the shots, the Citadel soldiers screaming, or my nani shouting.
Just quiet against the rage of the River rapids.
I waited, staring out at the human world, which now felt blurred and unclear as if I had removed my spectacles. My heart lurched at the idea that I might never see my grandmother or cousin again, that they would be captured and executed, and this was the legacy I had left them with.
Treason, torture.
No. I thought to myself, balling my hands into fists, the cut of Queen Azari’s hand chain biting my skin. This would not be our end.
I was going to bring down this wall and destroy the Empire for everything they had brought down on Astolans. And I was going to do it with all the power of the fae.
I turned around, facing the fae world in front of me.
River water dripped from my spectacles and cleared my vision to reveal calm trees, and an abundant, lush forest. I had made it to Peristan.
I was in the land of the fae.