27. Thyra
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Thyra
“You must stay concealed at all times,” Miriam says, tucking in the final stray end of a silken sash she wrapped around my head so it forms a hood over my face.
She steps back to survey me. “Once we leave this compound, no part of you can be identifiable. You must appear as if you’re one of the Mothers.” She hums in the back of her throat. “You’ll need to keep your eyes down or the blue color will give you away.”
At that, the Mothers converge around me, their jewelry clinking as they tug on my arms and even my braid, gently but quickly wrapping me up in ochre-colored silks, folding the large sashes cleverly to cover my shoulders and arms and finally, my head.
My silver armor can’t stay as it is, so I retract it, humming and pulling it skin-tight around my body.
Finally, they give me leather boots to wear. Slim, not chunky.
Before they began this process of concealment, the Mothers gave me a chance to eat and drink my fill, their concern about my potential dehydration indicating that, while they seem to know of the blood bind, they don’t know what it’s been doing.
I’m certain I’ll be able to withstand whatever heat waves Maxim can withstand, just as I survived the same freezing temperatures in the north that Stellen could survive.
“One more thing you need to know,” Miriam says.
“Since Ember women are not allowed into battle, we also aren’t allowed out onto the dunes without an escort.
If Zenaida were here, she could take us.
She’s the only woman with authority to come and go as she pleases.
Likewise, my son Kaiba is Maxim’s general and he helps when he can.
“Otherwise, we’re supposed to take a guard from the Ember Court. Five of them usually, one from each of the highborn Houses to maintain the appearance of impartiality. Once we reach the outside, we must move very quickly and ensure we aren’t seen.”
“If you would tell me where we’re going—” I begin, but she gives me a firm shake of her head.
“It’s safer if you don’t know until we get there.”
Seeming satisfied by my appearance, she calls softly to the other women. “Gather around Thyra. Keep her within your circle at all times. We will need to use the abandoned exit in the west—the one that hasn’t been fully closed yet—and evade all guards along the way. No, wait! One more thing.”
She takes hold of my shoulders. “You must understand, the prohibition from battle includes anything at all resembling combat. You must not touch a weapon or perform any kind of combative maneuver. You certainly must not strike another fae or possibly even run from one.” She grimaces.
“Running is borderline. Just don’t do any of these things when you could be observed. ”
Miriam steps back and the women converge around me, Charis on my left while Miriam moves to the front of the group. Within seconds, they whisk me along with them toward the compound’s outer wall.
Or what I think is the outer wall, until I realize that the acoustics indicate some sort of entry room, a possibility that’s confirmed as we move into it. The woman farthest to the back locks the door behind us.
“Ready?” Miriam calls softly while each of the Mothers pulls her silks over her face in the same fashion that I’m wearing mine.
A moment later, Miriam proceeds through the door, at which a hum of sound greets me. Voices, footfalls, a city alive with people.
In the next moment, Miriam loudly announces, “We’re going to the night market. We do not need an escort.”
I soon see to whom she spoke.
Five guards are placed along the wall, all of them dressed in leather pants, straps crisscrossing their chests. A different insignia is emblazoned on each of their chest plates. Presumably the crests of the five Houses Miriam mentioned.
They don’t try to stop us and I don’t risk staring at them, keeping my head down as we pass by.
I remain in the center of the group, three women deep on every side of me as Miriam leads the way along a smaller path onto what appears to be a main street, from which other paths extend.
The street is packed with fae, but our progress is silent, other than the patter of our booted feet, because as soon as the other fae see us, they clear the path and turn their backs.
Shunned suddenly feels like an understatement.
Miriam sails through the parting crowds, sweeping us along with her before she turns off the main path, then slips to the right along a less busy street, and then again to the right, this time onto a pathway that looks far less well used.
Nobody looks at us. If anything, they’re at pains to act as if we don’t exist.
A new experience for me, although I suppose it somewhat resembles the way Stellen’s people would rush to avoid any contact with him. Except that was out of fear.
The scorn beating at us across the air from all those sour expressions followed by turned backs is palpable.
Soon, we step into shadows and approach a boarded-up tunnel.
Charis gestures to the gaps between the slats, some of which appear to have been tampered with.
Moments later, we regroup on the other side of the boards.
From here, I glimpse a sliver of sky. Dusky and dark blue. Night must be close to falling. It’s hard to tell, given that the tunnel’s end is half caved in.
The freshness of the rubble indicates it happened recently.
We set off at a brisk pace while the Mothers stay close around me, but their quickening heartbeats betray their growing anxiety.
As we approach the rubble blocking the exit, Miriam holds up her hand as if to say stop.
She clambers over the top of the rubble and disappears down the other side.
Softly, her call comes. “No guards.”
I’m not sure what she would have done if there had been guards stationed here.
Charis takes hold of my arm and urges me forward.
My heart is suddenly beating hard in my chest, not because I think Miriam’s wrong, but because of what I can hear in the distance.
Explosions.
I want to ask Charis if she can hear them too, but I don’t want to break the silence between the Mothers.
“Come carefully,” Miriam calls as we clamber over the rubble and onto the dunes.
Endless amber sand spreads in all directions, the dune behind me momentarily blocking my view north.
My boots sink into the shifting ground, a familiar sensation since I grew up on the beaches of the western coast, although the absence of a roaring ocean unbalances me.
I teeter on the spot, trying to reconcile the unfamiliarly hot evening breezes of this wasteland with the nostalgic fluctuation of sand beneath my feet.
A moment later, the scent of burning oil hits me and every memory of the ocean vanishes.
Even the Mothers break their silence, craning their necks and hurrying toward the crest of the dune. “Miriam, what is that?”
My breath catches when I reach the crest.
Along the distant horizon, smoke billows black and ominous from a mountain range.
I’m suddenly transported to my final morning in Frost when Hadrian attacked the Frost Towers, suffocating Frost and Iron Fae alike with smoke steeped in iron.
Every muscle in my body tenses at the dark sight, and then—
A whirlwind of white explodes across the mountains, a tornado of ice wiping the air clean.
I jolt forward before I can stop myself. “Stellen.”
Charis catches my arm before I can descend the dune. “Thyra, no.”
Miriam is suddenly in front of me, her boots kicking up grit in her haste to get ahead of me. “Stop, Thyra.”
“What is happening there?” I demand to know.
Her expression is grim. “War.”
My heart sinks. “How long?”
“Three days now. It began the day before Stellen brought you to us. We had a reprieve on the day you came to us. Today, the onslaught started again. Stellen is fighting beside Maxim now. Frost is the only power that combats the toxic smoke. We would have lost hundreds of warriors if not for the Frost King.”
Three days. With Stellen’s damaged heart… And his drained power…
I can’t breathe. “I have to help him. I should be fighting beside them!”
“No.” Miriam’s tone is suddenly harsh. She takes hold of my shoulders. “You have a path you must follow right now, Thyra, and it is not into that battle.”
Every muscle in my body screams at me to run toward the fight.
As if she senses how close I am to slipping her hold, Miriam sweeps her arm around my back, gripping me tightly.
I could fight her. Easily. But I don’t want to hurt her.
A moment later, the Mothers close in around me. They glance at the battle on the horizon, their faces pale and whispers hushed.
“It’s bad again.”
“They’re keeping the toxins away from the city this time.”
“How did it come to this?”
Their focus is quickly back on me and to get past them now, I’d have to shove them aside.
“Come,” Miriam commands me, scooping me along beside her as she heads west at a brisk pace. “If you want to help, follow your fate.”
It takes every ounce of trust in me to follow Miriam and not break free and obey my crushing need to help Stellen.
“Stellen,” I whisper beneath my breath, visualizing him hearing me. “I’m awake. I’ll come fight beside you soon.”
If the Mothers think it’s strange that I’m whispering to myself, they don’t show it.
In the distance, another explosion of ice cascades across the horizon, even stronger than the first.
When I close my eyes, I imagine I can hear Stellen whisper back to me…
“Your heart is my blessing, Thyra. Always.”
It’s all I need.
I focus on my breathing and when Miriam calls to the Mothers that it’s time to run, I match their stride, not knowing if I’m racing away from danger.
Or into it.