Rise of Fire

by Sophie Jordan

  I’d stood by listening as Fowler had fought before. I knew how ruthless he could be, how unrelenting. It was as though he turned off that part of him that felt pain and fear. But the prince was no weakling either. The two were well matched.

  Harmon moved to stand beside me, his hot, rancid breath hitching in excitement as he watched the combat unfold.

  Suddenly there was a crunch of bone, and Chasan screamed. I winced. Harmon hissed out a breath beside me and I felt him tense as though he was going to step in.

  I slapped a hand on his arm and clung to him as he took a step forward, as though I could somehow stop the giant myself. “Stop!” I ordered. “Stay back.”

  Harmon shook off my hand, but didn’t step forward again.

  “The next thing I break won’t be a finger,” Fowler snarled as he launched himself at Chasan. They hit the ground with a loud crash, limbs flailing wildly as they rolled, grappling to get a grip on the other. Chasan struck Fowler. I smelled the spray of his blood, heard it strike the ground.

  “Stop! Stop it!” No one had to die. Neither one of them needed to die. “We’ll go back! We’ll go back with you!”

  Perla’s voice ghosted through me. Things, words she used to say to me as a child. Life is full of choices . . . you just might not like any of them.

  I didn’t care then. I believed any risk was worth it just as long as I got to choose. The only thing that mattered had been leaving the tower and finding something, anything, else. I’d found that freedom. I’d found Fowler. But Perla was right. Every choice led to this. It didn’t matter what you did. It was unavoidable.

  “Luna!” Fowler cried out amid grunts as Chasan plowed his fist into him.

  “Let them finish,” Harmon growled beside me. “It’s already done. One of them isn’t walking away. My wager is on Prince Chasan.” Glee laced his voice.

  I shook my head, bitter tears stinging my eyes as Fowler’s head whacked the ground from the force of a blow.

  “Fowler!” The sound of his name must have snapped something loose inside him. With a howl of rage, Fowler sprang up, launching Chasan off him.

  Chasan landed several feet away. Fowler dropped hard on top of him. An oompf blew out of Chasan. Soon they were locked again, writhing and landing punches.

  I listened, leaning forward, the only thing stopping me from jumping into the fray the enormous hand on my shoulder.

  All my focus centered on the two boys beating the life from each other. I followed their savage movements, my head angling, listening, concentrating on their location, until, suddenly, the hand on my shoulder lifted. Harmon was gone, ripped from my side.

  A new scream intruded on the din. I turned, trying to track Harmon’s staggering form.

  “Luna!” Fowler shouted.

  Harmon crashed into me, his massive body sending me flying before I hit the ground.

  I sucked in a breath, ready to demand to know what was wrong with him, when I got my answer.

  “Luna!” Fowler crouched at my side, pulling me up as the sounds of a dweller tearing into Harmon penetrated.

  For once, I had missed the usual signals, too fixated on what was happening between Fowler and Chasan—either that or the little time I had spent in Ainswind had dulled me more than I realized. Weakened me so that I had missed a dweller creeping up on us. Just another reason why I needed to escape. The castle was making me soft.

  I was fortunate the dweller had chosen Harmon instead of me.

  “There’s too many!” Chasan shouted over a growing buzz of noise, and I heard them then—not just the single one tearing into Harmon but the others.

  Layered over Harmon’s screams was an army of twenty or more dwellers working up the incline with steady purpose. Twenty. More, maybe. Blood rushed to my head as they clambered in their heavy shuffle, grinding rocks underfoot as they advanced. To venture this far from the comfort of soft, yielding soil, they must be desperate.

  I froze, panicked for one moment as I contemplated how to evade so many of them. Firing to action, I shook off Fowler’s hand and readied my bow. I let an arrow fly, striking a dweller with a satisfying thunk.

  “The tunnel!” Chasan shouted. “It’s the quickest way back to the castle.”

  Fowler grabbed my hand before I could get off another shot. We slid back through the narrow opening. Me first, then Fowler, then Chasan. Gasping panicked breaths, we waited on the other side to see if any would follow.

  “The bigger ones won’t be able to get through,” Chasan whispered amid harsh breaths.

  “You better hope so,” Fowler muttered, “or you’ve just given them a direct route inside the castle.”

  “It was either that or lead them to the front gates of the castle,” he snapped. “At least they can’t swarm us all at once in here. Space is too narrow.”

  “It was a good decision.” I intervened, attempting to mediate.

  “Hear that,” Chasan goaded.

  “Oh, shut up,” I snapped. “If you hadn’t insisted on fighting, then the noise would never have attracted them. I blame you for this.”

  Fowler took my hand and gave it a comforting squeeze. I inhaled a shuddering breath, pushing back the tide of emotion.

  Both boys reeked of blood and sweat. At least this had brought their little death match to an end. That was one thing to appreciate.

  A scratching sound whispered in front of us. Heavy feet dragged on the ground and my pulse jerked at the base of my throat. I knew before anyone spoke. They were following us.

  Rasping breath suddenly cleared the barrier of the wall. Receptors snapped and hissed, poisonous serpents reaching, seeking victims.

  With a curse, Fowler snatched the arrow I still clutched in my hand. Shoving me behind him, he lunged forward, using the sharp point to stab it into the head of the first dweller to break through.

  “Go!” he shouted, his voice a shattering boom in the tight space. “Get her back inside the castle.”

  I yanked another arrow from my quiver, intent on helping. “I’m staying!”

  Fowler jerked his arrow back out of the dweller’s head and stuck it into the next one to emerge. “They’re coming in fast!”

  He was right. They were like water pouring from a spigot.

  “Luna, let’s go!” Chasan grabbed my hand and started hauling me away from the dwellers streaming into the tunnel.

  “No! Fowler!” I strained to break free of his grip.

  “I’ll be right behind you!”

  “Let him slow them down.” Chasan tugged on my hand, pulling us ahead into the tunnel. “He’ll be fine.”

  I moved, half dragged by Chasan, my heart pounding. The growls and rasping breaths of dwellers swelled behind us. After a while I couldn’t hear the swift thunk and pop of Fowler stabbing them anymore.

  “Fowler,” I cried.

  Chasan yanked on my hand again. “He can take care of himself. We would have heard him scream if they got him.”

  If they got him . . .

  I’d just left him. In all our struggles together, we had never abandoned each other.

  I would not abandon him now.

  With a grunt, I kicked Chasan in the back of his leg. He yelped, his grip loosening. I spun around, my sweating palm flexing around the arrow still clutched in my hand. The hard fall of my boots echoed all around me as I rushed forward. The ripe, bitter odor of dwellers filled my nose. They were close, filling the space with dampness. Toxin dripped off their faces, the copper sweetness sitting like metal on my tongue.

  “Fowler,” I hissed, trying to hear or sense him amid the creatures slogging their way toward me. “Fowler,” I tried again, lifting my bow and notching the arrow, ready to let it fly.

  A hand knocked the bow to the side. “Why did you come back?” Fowler didn’t wait for an answer. He spun me around and we started running, trying to stay ahead of the mob. Chasan met us.

  “You were supposed to get her out of here,” Fowler accused.

  “She kicked me,” Chas
an snarled.

  I turned my face toward Fowler as we continued. “I wasn’t leaving you. Don’t ask me to do that again.”

  He said nothing, and we fell into silence as we dashed up the tunnel, all pounding hearts and labored breaths, trying to get as much of a lead as we could.

  Finally, we reached the end. Fowler seized my waist and lifted me up. I slipped my hands into the carved handholds and started climbing. I worked fast, hand over hand, legs pushing. The boys were behind me, their charged breaths floating up to me, egging me on faster.

  Memory told me I was close to the top. I reached out a hand to feel for the open space above me. I met with the hard metal of the grate instead.

  My heart constricted.

  I looked down in horror. “Someone shut it!”

  For a long moment, neither one of them said anything. There was just the roar of blood in my ears and the sounds of the dwellers below, frothing like stew in a pot.

  I turned back to the grate and pounded at it. It was a dead end. Nowhere to go above and dwellers below.

  We were trapped.

  TWENTY-FIVE

  Fowler

  I PEERED DOWN into the darkness at the swarm of dwellers, hoping they didn’t suddenly start climbing. Clinging to the handholds, muscles straining, I looked back up at Luna. Her body shook as she fiercely pounded the grate.

  “Keep hitting,” Chasan shouted below me.

  “I am!” she cried, her voice cracking in a way I had never heard from her.

  “Harder!” he added. “Someone has to hear you!”

  Luna added her voice, shouting. We all joined in, screaming for help.

  Luna’s unseeing gaze dropped down, her dark hair wild about her pale face. Her shoulders heaved with exertion. “How long are we going to be able to hold on like this?”

  That’s when I noticed she wasn’t simply shaking from pounding on the grate. “Don’t you dare let go,” I warned, a lump lodging in my throat. “You’ll hang on for as long as we need.”

  “Fowler,” she choked out over Chasan’s shouts. He didn’t let up.

  “Luna!” I removed one hand from its grip in the handhold and used it to support her, bracing it under her thigh.

  “Don’t! You’ll fall!”

  “I’m not going to fall,” I ground out from between clenched teeth, “and neither are you!”

  Suddenly a grind of metal followed by a loud clank cut over Chasan’s shouts. Feeble lantern light glowed down at us from the jagged opening. A kitchen maid’s wide eyes peered down at us, her flour-dusted face maybe the sweetest sight I ever beheld.

  Luna gasped and started up, pulling herself through the hole with the help of the maid. I was fast behind her, dropping down on the storeroom floor with an exhausted sigh. Chasan pulled himself through, slammed the grate shut, and bolted it. He turned on the maid then, one finger lifted. “No one knows you saw us here. Understood?”

  The maid nodded and bobbed a curtsy. “Yes, Your Highness. Not a word.” With an uncertain look at each of us, she hastened out of the storeroom, grabbing a sack on the way out.

  Chasan dropped back on the ground, tossing an arm over his forehead. A ragged sigh spilled from his lips. After a long moment, he said, “No one will know about tonight.”

  For several moments, the three of us didn’t move or speak.

  I moistened my dry lips. “What do you mean?” I finally asked.

  “My father . . . if he were to learn of your escape attempt, he’d see you both as traitors. I want Luna as my wife, not wasting away in a dungeon.”

  I thought about that for a moment, rolling my head to look at her, still catching her breath beside me. Bright splotches of color splashed her cheeks. I didn’t want to see her wasting away in a dungeon either. “He’s not going to hear about it from us,” I volunteered.

  As for Luna marrying Chasan, that wasn’t going to happen. I reached for her hand near mine and gave it a squeeze, silently communicating that. Considering our escape attempt had just been foiled, we’d have to come up with a new strategy.

  I wasn’t giving up.

  Fortunately, we didn’t pass anyone in the hall as we returned to our rooms. Firelight flickered from the sconces lining the corridor, casting long, crawling shadows as we walked. We deposited Luna at her chamber first.

  I longed to stay, talk to her, hold her, but with Chasan hovering and morning looming close when everyone would wake, it was too risky. Instead, I hugged her close before letting her go, inhaling her, pressing my mouth into her hair and whispering, “I’ll come to you. Don’t worry. We’ll figure another way out of here.”

  She nodded once, her face downcast, the dark short spikes of her hair angling at a slant that obscured her cheeks. She slipped inside her chamber. The door clicked shut after her, and I felt that small sound resound inside me.

  With a single hard glance at Chasan, I continued on toward my chamber. I knew his room was in the opposite direction, but he fell in step beside me. “You’re not being fair to her.”

  I shook my head. “What are you talking about?”

  “Let her go.”

  I snorted. “So you can have her?”

  “If you let her go, she could be happy with me.”

  “You think so?” I released a short, harsh laugh. “You don’t know the first thing about her.”

  “I know Luna.” He nodded so knowingly, so smugly, that I wanted to take another swing at his face.

  “Apparently not, or you would know she could never be happy here.” I motioned around us. “This place isn’t for her.”

  “And out there is? How many times has she nearly died out there with you? In here she would never have to see another dweller again.”

  “She’d just have to marry you to have all of that.”

  “And that’s what’s really bothering you. Luna with me.”

  I stopped and faced him. “Oh, it’s bothering her, too. Trust in that.” I jerked my chin once. “Knowing it’s me she wants, me she thinks about every time you’re with her? That’s something you could live with?”

  Chasan crossed his arms, that smug smile back in place. “I can make her forget you. I can make her happy. Eventually.”

  Fear stirred in my heart. Fear that he was right. I opened and closed my hands at my sides. “Not happening,” I said with far more conviction than I felt.

  “You might try not being such a selfish bastard. Start thinking about her. I know you don’t give a damn about Lagonia, but you should care about Relhok. Think about your country. According to Breslen, things aren’t so great back there.” His sigh rattled on the air. “Our fathers won’t rule forever. If Luna marries me and you marry my sister, the two kingdoms unite. We present a stronger front.”

  I wanted to say I didn’t give a damn about Relhok, but then I saw Bethan’s face. Her parents and little brother. All the people I had known in Relhok who weren’t terrible. Those people deserved better. Luna would agree with that, too. She always put others before herself.

  Maybe I needed to try to do the same.

  The following night the hall was bustling, nobility and gentry alike in full attendance. The hounds trotted amid tables, happily gobbling up the scraps tossed their way, growling and snapping when they got in each other’s way. Only here did people turn their noses up at food while the peasants of Ainswind rooted for their next meal in the scraps tossed to them after the king and his court dined.

  I moved stiffly, still sore from yesterday’s fight with Chasan. The only thing that made me feel better was that he looked much the same as I did.

  I dodged a dog the size of a bear as I escorted Maris to the head table upon the dais, my stiffness not solely because of my soreness. It felt unnatural touching Maris and pretending that I didn’t want to snatch Luna up into my arms.

  I didn’t need to look to feel Chasan’s gaze on me. The threat was there. He wanted to finish what we started Outside. He could, too. He could end Luna and me with one word to his father. The kno
wledge held me in careful check. A second escape wouldn’t be easy. Chasan would be expecting it, but it would happen. It had to.

  Maris preened, resplendent in a blue gown that made me remember my last glimpse of the sky before everything went dark.

  Clinging to my arm, she greeted friends who called out to her and stared after her with greedy eyes. I suppose a measure of this was due to the gold crown woven into her hair. The headpiece matched her glittering strands. That crown marked her above everyone else. I vaguely remembered what it felt like to be admired, to feel as though anything could be yours because generally it was. I had felt invincible.

  It had been an illusion. Losing Bethan wasn’t the first hint, but it was the one that pushed me out, made me rush headlong into a world teeming with monsters, because that was real at least. And I wanted reality over illusions.

  My gaze drifted down the table to where Luna sat. She’d become my reality.

  Tebald was already sitting at the helm of the head table. He nodded at me in lofty regard. My gaze moved back to Luna sitting beside Chasan. I assessed them briefly, even though it physically pained me. The vision imprinted itself on my mind: Luna dazzling in a red gown, her shoulders and throat bare, her dark hair pulled up, studded with jewels. She looked as she should look—as she was born to look. She looked like a queen: achingly lovely but impossible to touch. Except for Chasan. He could touch her and hold her arm as they walked. He could brush his fingers over her hand. It made me gnash my teeth.

  I couldn’t stare at her overly long without attracting undue attention. Even at my brief glance, a slow creep of pink swept up her décolletage and neck. She felt my stare—felt me. That was enough for now.

  I lowered my face as Maris warbled on, complaining that her favorite cheese was not on the table. I feigned interest in the food spread out before me, but it was mostly to hide my smile.

  My pretend interest in the food was cut short when Tebald rose from the table, clanging a spoon against his goblet to gain everyone’s attention.

  Maris was the last to stop talking beside me. Resting a hand on top of my arm as though she was afraid I might vanish on her when she looked in another direction, she swung her gaze toward her father with mild interest.