CHAPTER 13 #2
A younger woman nearby clutched a child to her chest. “Thank the Gods for the rider who warned us. Said Fatàn had foreseen disaster – told us to get to higher ground.”
He saved them?
“Thank the Gods?” A young man shoved forward, fists clenched. “Lily, he caused it. He’s the Thorne Shard-stealer – I saw him coming out of the Temple covered in crimson. Then he went in the water.”
“What was he doing in the water?” Kara asked.
The man gestured towards another woman holding a small blonde boy.
“She lost her little one in the chaos. He jumped in after him. I thought the sea had taken them both, but he came up with him in his arms. Then he was gone.” The man’s voice turned bitter.
“As if saving one life makes up for what he did.”
Kara stared over at the blonde-haired boy with his mother, saw the tears of relief streaming down her face.
But he saved him too. Like he saved Morra.
She hated that she wanted to cling to that thought. How could she when she’d seen for herself the devastation he’d caused? The man was right – it didn’t erase what he’d done.
He continued, full of venom. “I should’ve gone after him. Killed him with my bare hands,” he growled.
The woman, Lily, was visibly shaken, and held her daughter tighter. “Thalen, I don’t understand – why would he warn us?”
That’s a good question.
“How do I know how a traitor’s mind works?” Thalen responded angrily.
Kara stepped away with Henry and murmured, “He shouldn’t have been able to get to it, Henry. My father swore they’d redoubled its protection.”
A sudden shout cut through the noise. Kara turned towards the Temple steps as a single Thorne guard staggered into view. His cloak was ripped, his lip bloodied, and crimson magic sparked jerkily around him. He slipped down the loose cliffside rocks as he half-ran, half-stumbled towards them.
“Anyone here got a messenger hawk?” he bellowed, scanning the crowd.
“Aye!” came a voice from Kara’s left.
“Send one to the Council. Now. Don’t delay.” His breath hitched as he straightened. “Sebastian Thorne has taken the Water Shard.”
Gasps broke through the crowd. They had feared it, known it even... but hearing it aloud was something else entirely.
Thalen, still bristling with anger, advanced on him. “What happened up there?”
The guard’s jaw tightened. “We were holding the Temple. He came alone. Got past the gates before we knew it, and then–” He swallowed hard. “–it was over. I swear, one moment we were bracing for him, the next we were all on the ground.”
“Is everyone okay?” Kara asked.
Please don’t have killed anyone.
The guard nodded, and Kara let out a sigh of relief. “No deaths. When we woke, the Fatàn shield was still burning strong, but the plinth was empty.”
She looked to Henry, who stood perfectly still. “We were too late,” she whispered.
Henry’s gaze flicked to the distant rise where the Temple loomed. “Yes... and now we know exactly how dangerous Sebastian Thorne is. One man brought an entire village to its knees.”
A raw, grief-stricken wail rose from the crowd. Kara followed the sound to a woman kneeling in the wet mud, her hands twisting uselessly in her lap. Her red-rimmed eyes were locked on the now-calm water.
“Are you hurt?” Kara asked gently, kneeling beside her.
“My husband–” the woman cried, but the rest of her words dissolved into sobs that shook her whole body.
Another villager answered for her. “He was aboard the Navyrian ship. They wouldn’t come in. They laughed at the warning – said no wave could touch a Navyr crew.” He looked out to the water. “The sea took them. All of them.”
Kara’s stomach turned. All those people. Drowned because Sebastian wanted the Shard. Her hand flew to her mouth, and she willed herself not to be sick.
Henry’s gaze stayed on the remnants of the village below. “All those lives... a cost he was willing to pay.” His voice was cold, edged with something that made Kara uneasy. “I doubt he gave them a second thought.”
She kept her gaze down. She didn’t agree – not entirely.
Sebastian had come here to take the Shard, that was undeniable, but if he’d meant to kill them, he wouldn’t have warned anyone – gotten them to higher ground.
He’d shown mercy. Henry didn’t see that.
He clearly thought Sebastian was a monster.
Kara had to find him. Get to the truth.
The guard and several villagers were now barking commands at each other, their voices edged with scarcely concealed panic.
They clung to order, desperate to carve a semblance of control from the chaos.
Not far from her, a child sat whimpering, hands pressed to a badly cut leg.
Kara crouched and laid her palm gently against the skin, letting a pulse of her emerald magic knit the wound closed. It was all she could do.
Her gaze found the grieving widow again.
Not nearly enough.
Next to her, Henry burst into action. “Kara, we need to leave.”
“What? No!” She turned on him, anger flaring. “We can’t leave them!”
“They’ll have a healer, Kara.” His voice was sharp, unyielding.
“We have to help–”
He was already moving. “We’re not here for them. We have to go. Now.”
She stared at him, disbelief and fury warring inside her. “Go? Go where–”
“The Air Shard’s closest from here. He’ll be making for Hale and Caldris next.”
She inhaled sharply. Home. Both their homes. Henry caught her arm but she shoved his hand away.
“No, he can’t – he can’t hurt Hale–”
But even as she said it, she knew he could. And he would.
She followed Henry off the hilltop, stealing glances again and again at the injured and grief-stricken as they rode hard for the bridge – the only river crossing for miles – the quickest route north.
It took them only minutes; the crossing was close.
Spray misted their faces as they drew closer to the river.
But something didn’t look right. Even from a distance, Kara could see:
The bridge was gone.
Her heart lurched. When they got closer, she saw its supports had splintered, its timbers rushing downstream.
Minutes. We missed him by minutes.
Henry swore, low and vicious. “Efficient bastard.”
The breaks were clean – he’d slowed them on purpose. Bought himself a clear path north. Towards Hale. She cursed herself for her hesitation at the village – it had cost them hours.
“Damn him. I hope the Four damn him,” Henry muttered.
“Do you think he knows we’re the ones that are following him?” she asked.
“I doubt it. He’d be a fool not to take precautions. And we both know he isn’t that. He’ll assume someone is after him.” Henry dismounted and eyed the river. “The valmares can’t cross through the water. It’s too deep.”
Henry carved his hand through the air – another wind message.
“You’ve told the Council?” she asked when he finished.
“My father,” he answered as he remounted. “It’s quicker than any hawk. I’ve also told him we’ve lost half a day’s ride taking the long way around.”
Kara strained her eyes into the forest ahead. There was no flash of red, no movement, no hoofbeats she could hear.
Sebastian had wasted no time. He was hours ahead of them now. She urged Whisper forward.
She couldn’t afford to fail.
How many of her people would die if she did?