by Imogen Elvis
But the fire burned low on the hearth, the innkeeper had long since locked the door and gone to bed, and there was no way to hold off the night forever. They should be heading to bed to get some much-needed sleep before facing the new day. But she lingered a little longer. Kade didn’t seem inclined to move, and neither was she. The night was silent and dark, the room was empty apart from them, and everything was so peaceful. She could have sat there forever.
“I wonder if things would have been different if I’d stayed,” Kade said softly. “If I hadn’t run but faced the accusation instead. There was no proof of my treason. Could I have stopped this earlier?
“You’re no coward. You left because you were in danger. Master Sachio had the leaf from the Crystal Tree back then. He was too powerful. Even speaking the truth wouldn’t have stopped him. If you stayed, who’s to say that you would have been in prison right now, instead of free to fight back?”
“I suppose that is true. It’s so hard to know, isn’t it? I keep thinking of all the ways I could have done things differently. Better.”
“Looking back makes us all wise,” Briar said. “In the moment, all we can do is to try and make the best decisions we can at the time.”
“That sounds like the voice of experience,” Kade said.
“Too much experience.” Briar smiled, a little bitterly.
“You’ve done the best you can,” Kade said softly. His arm tightened around her shoulders. “You know that, don’t you?”
“I suppose so. It’s hard to believe sometimes.” Briar sighed, then stiffened. Was it her imagination, or was that the faint but familiar tingle of magic running over her skin? She must be imagining it. Even with the Order house only a few streets away, the magicians should all be in their dorms. None of them should be singing at this time of night. And yet, the feeling, rather than fading, grew stronger.
“What’s wrong?” Kade asked as Briar pulled away.
“Someone’s using magic.” She started toward the door.
“Is it the children?”
Briar hadn’t realised that Kade had followed her from the table until he spoke. Was it the children? She could only shrug. “I hope not. I could be mistaken, anyway.”
“Then we need to find out.” Kade lifted the heavy locking bar from the door and pushed it open, letting Briar pass through ahead of him.
The feeling of magic was stronger out in the street, still faint, like the lightest breaths of air over her skin, but still raising the hairs on the back of Briar’s neck. It should have been a comforting, familiar feeling. Standing amid the magic should have felt as natural as breathing. But it wasn’t. This magic was wrong. It made her hands twist into claws. Something wasn’t right.
“Something’s happening, Kade.” Briar looked up at him, her throat tightening.
“I’ll go and wake Lara. We should go and investigate. If it’s the children-” Kade shook his head. “Stay here. You’ll know better than I will if anything happens.” And with that, he disappeared back into the inn.
Left alone, Briar retreated into the doorway. Standing in the middle of the street with the stifling wrongness of that magic washing all around her, she felt too exposed. Briar’s fingers curled around the edge of the door frame as her eyes searched the darkened road. Maybe this was all a mistake. She could be just imagining how wrong the magic felt. It could just be the Order. But her skin shivered with the feeling of power, and she doubted she was mistaken.
“Has there been any change?” Kade reappeared at her side.
“No.” Briar turned away from the street. “I can’t hear any voices yet, but I can still feel the magic. Whoever the magicians are, they’re powerful.”
“Are you sure it’s not the Order?” Lara asked.
“It could be, but I doubt it. They don’t usually work in the middle of the night.”
“Sachio’s children then?” Lara asked.
“Maybe.”
“We should go and find out,” Kade said quietly. “Briar, can you tell which way the magic is coming from?”
Briar stepped back out into the street. The night was too dark and peaceful. It was as if they were the only ones in the whole city who could feel the danger looming. She closed her eyes, focusing on the twisted magic. At first, all she could feel was it rippling around her, thin and wispy, seemingly with no beginning and no end, but, as she concentrated, Briar felt the current coming more strongly from one side of the street. Without opening her eyes, she pointed. “That way.”
“Then we need to follow it. Come on.” Lara set off down the road without a backwards glance.
Briar hesitated before following. Every instinct said to get out of there, now. They should be running, finding somewhere safe to hide until this was all over, not hurrying straight towards the source of the danger. But since when had she ever listened to her instincts? Especially where Ava was concerned. She could be out there somewhere.
Kade kept pace at her side. “She’ll be alright,” he said in a voice low enough that Lara wouldn’t be able to catch the words. “Your sister has made it this far. She’s strong.”
“I know.” But if Master Sachio got his way, all the young magicians could die tonight, including Ava. The feel of the strange magic grew heavier around Briar, so warped it made her sick. Everything about this was so wrong, including how long they walked without hearing a song. They should have found something by now. “Why do you think they chose to attack now?” Briar asked to break the silence more than anything.
“At my best guess, it’s to force the song council’s hand,” Kade said. “If Sachio stirs up enough fear, they’ll be forced to do whatever he wants. Attack now, and they have no choice but to use the song catcher.”
“He’ll paint himself as a hero,” Lara said.
Briar’s breath hitched in her throat. It was so clever, so devious and cunning and heartless. Made all the worse by the fact that it was more than likely to work.
“We’d better hope it isn’t the children,” Kade said. “For everyone’s sake.”
“It will be,” Briar said quietly. “Why would he hold them back now?” It was the children everyone underestimated. It was the children that both councils struggled to find a solution for. And they were expendable. Why would Master Sachio sacrifice his Nameless Ones? No, when they reached the source of the magic, Briar had no doubt that they would find the young magicians.
The hum of magic was almost unbearable now, and finally, through the distance, Briar could make out the sound of voices raised in song. They weren’t the full, rich, menacing tones of the Nameless Ones. No, these were the young, silvery voices of children. Briar avoided Kade’s gaze. Was he trying to gauge how she was feeling? Even she didn’t know that. Briar’s fingers curled around her medallion. She had to find Ava.
Lara slowed, dropping back to walk with Kade and Briar at last. “We should take the side streets. If Sachio is looking to cause the most panic, the children will march right up the central road. That will lead them straight to the castle. If we carry on this way, we’ll be directly in their path. I don’t think we want to meet them head-on.”
Neither Briar nor Kade argued with that. They followed Lara off the central road and into a small side street. A thin layer of smoke hung in the air, growing thicker as they continued on, mingling with the strains of magic, and pushed ahead of the children by the songs they wove.
“Look out.” Lara stopped suddenly, throwing out an arm to halt her friends.
Ahead, the cobblestones cracked, buckling as huge roots punched up through the soil. They writhed and seethed, like a nest of angry snakes, rearing high into the air, before collapsing under their own weight, punching a hole straight through the stonework of a nearby wall. Cracks spread across its surface, and the stone blocks groaned.
Kade grabbed Briar’s arm, pulling her back. “Watch out. It’s going to fall.”
They ran back a few feet. For a moment, the wall held, even as the roots thickened and writhed, widen
ing the holes they had already made and churning up the ground around the building. And then, all at once, the blockwork tumbled down with a crash that shook the ground. Dust filled the air.
Briar grabbed Kade’s hand, coughing. When the thick, grey dust settled, all that remained of the building was a pile of rubble, crushed rock spilling out into the street. Those writhing, twisting roots emerged from the ruins without so much as a scar, and reached back out into the street, groping towards Briar and her friends like fat, hungry snakes.
Lara pressed her sleeve over her mouth and backed away. “Move.” Her voice caught in her throat. “Before the roots grab you.”
The ends of the long, crooked roots followed their movements, homing in on their location as if they sensed that Briar and her friends were near. Briar stepped back, her eyes fixed on the approaching roots. Somewhere nearby, another crash sounded as another building toppled.
“We’ve got to go,” Lara called. “Back to the central road.”
“You said the children would come that way,” Briar said.
“We need to get out of here, and the central road is the fastest way. This magic is everywhere, and these roots will just be the start of it,” Lara countered.
Kade’s fingers gripped Briar’s, and together they retraced their steps through the twisting side streets and back to the central road. Dozens of voices mingled in the air, growing louder and louder, mingling until they sang as one. The very air pulsed with the strength of their song. Smoke from unseen fires filled the streets. Somewhere behind them, Briar could hear torrents of rain thundering down too, even though no water fell on her. The ground behind them cracked and tore apart as the roots chased after them, while thick curtains of vines spread over the remnants of buildings the roots left in their wake.
When they reached the central road, however, Briar and her friends had to stop. A screaming gale blew straight down the street, howling like a banewulf. Briar hesitated. Could they brave the wind anyway? Looking towards the castle, the city was dark and peaceful. If she turned the other way, however, the marks of magic were everywhere. Fires punched out through the windows of nearby houses, sending golden sparks shooting into the sky like a thousand shattering notes. The wind whipped the flames into a dancing frenzy, carrying them from building to building, faster than Briar wanted to believe was possible.
Even in the shelter of the street mouth, the wind grabbed at them, sucking them towards the open centre of the road. Briar’s skirts flapped around her legs, and her hair whipped across her face. She held onto Kade’s hand tighter, and his fingers squeezed hers, warm and comforting, anchoring her in place.
“We stick to the backstreets,” Kade said.
“Wait. Look.” Lara pointed down the street into the darkness.
Out of the night, row after row of soldiers marched towards them, their every step braced against the wind, which threatened to send them skidding backwards. The soldiers pressed together, shoulder to shoulder, their shields locked together, forming an unbroken wall that reflected the dancing flames in strange, twisted patterns.
“Do you think they stand a chance against the children?” Briar asked.
“I don’t know.” Kade’s eyes flicked from the soldiers to the other side of the road. “But I think we’re about to find out.”
Sure enough, as Briar tore her eyes away from the oncoming soldiers, she caught her first glimpse of the children, stepping out of the glow of the fires. Like the soldiers, they too filled the width of the street. However, they flowed like a river, now coming together in the middle of the road, now moving apart, no order to their movements, no ranks or thought to how they went. And no hesitation at all as their voices wrought a terrible magic.
Without a word, Kade drew Briar and Lara back further into the safety of the side street. Briar didn’t take her eyes off the scene in the road ahead of them. She wasn’t sure that she could. Nothing had changed, and yet the air was charged with more than just magic, as if the world held its breath, waiting for the moment when the two groups would meet. The children were powerful, but these were the best-trained soldiers in all of Kerr. They had to know what they faced. Surely, they must stand a chance?
As the soldiers drew closer, the foremost children banded together, joining hands. They were close enough now that Briar’s searching eyes could almost make out the faces of the nearest children. She looked for Ava’s face, heart beating wildly in her chest. Her sister would be here somewhere. As Briar searched for Ava though, something else caught her eye.
“Look. Can you see the Nameless Ones? I think they’re guiding the children.”
The Nameless Ones’ black robes rendered them almost invisible in the darkness. They stalked along at the edges of the street. The children barely even seemed to notice as they were funnelled along, deeper into the city. There was no need for the Nameless Ones to do more than gently point the children in the right direction. They didn’t need to raise their voices in song.
And then, the wind dropped. The children’s voices died away, and their steps stilled. The soldiers ceased their march and locked their shields together more firmly, shifting their stance. There was no sound but the ominous crackling of the fires. Everything waited in the utter stillness.
Out of the silence, a voice rose up in a shivering note of pure magic. One by one, the whole chorus of children raised their voices, joining the song, their voices blending into a single melody. The air snapped and popped. Briar’s eyes widened with sudden memory, and her heart raced with fear, as the very air burst into flames, licking out towards the soldiers. They crouched further behind their shields, standing their ground. Then the wind whipped up again, not pushing the soldiers away this time, but dragging them towards those hungry flames. Even the stones shifted, grinding as they moved, allowing the earth to rise around the soldiers’ feet.
Shields fell to the ground with heavy clangs that reverberated off the walls. The guards’ cries rose over the howling wind as they struggled to back away from the slithering the earth and the snapping fires that reached towards them with long, golden fingers. Briar’s ears rang with the cries of brave men and women, fighting for their very lives against an unstoppable madness.
A couple of the soldiers on the edge of the street wrenched themselves free of the clinging earth and turned to flee. Before they could get more than a couple of steps, the ground exploded around them. Roots, thicker than tree trunks, shot into the air, before crashing down around the soldiers, cracking the ground beneath them. The air rang with the soldiers’ terror as the roots twisted around them, dragging them down and down, deeper and deeper into the earth, until the ground swallowed them whole, cutting off their shrill cries. Fire licked over the stones, sealing them in, and when it drew back, there was nothing to be seen but scattered shields and a tangled mass of roots, smoking and scorched, but still moving forward, seeking new prey. The children didn’t pause, just carried on, remorseless, hungry for more.
It was all over so fast. The soldiers never stood a chance. Briar swallowed, hot tears welling in her eyes. She pressed herself more firmly into the shadows, unable to tear her gaze away from the children as they marched by. Her breath caught as she recognised some of the passing faces. How could they do something like that and not feel sick with the enormity of what they had done? And then, one face, in particular, caught Briar’s eye. Ava. She marched by, clustering with a few of the other children in a tight knot. Their faces were ghostly pale in the light from the fires. Ava didn’t look left or right but followed the others, her steps never faltering.
“Ava.” Briar couldn’t draw a breath. She took a couple of steps towards the mouth of the street. “It’s Ava.”
Kade caught her before she could go further, his hands closing around her shoulders, drawing her back. “You can’t go out there. Look at what they did to the soldiers.”
“I can’t just leave her.” Tears sprang to Briar’s eyes as Ava passed the street opening and vanished from sight.
“If you try to reach her, they will kill you. I am so sorry, Briar. I wish there were something we could do. We can’t reach her right now.”
Briar closed her eyes, forcing back the looming tears. “You’re right.” Her voice came out hollow, echoing the yawning pit that opened in her chest. She couldn’t reach Ava. She couldn’t save her sister. Again, all she could do was stand and watch, too afraid to take those few steps out to meet her.
“We should head for the Order house.” Lara’s voice was grim. “We’ll have to pray that the magicians can stop these children.”
Kade drew Briar away, his arm around her shoulders, and she let him. Images of what she had just seen flashed in front of her eyes, seared into her memory. This was every nightmare come true, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Briar, Lara and Kade sprinted through the streets, fleeing ahead of the twisted magic that tore through the city, setting it aflame. Briar’s breath was raw in her throat, partly from their headlong flight, and partly with the grief and fear that filled her at seeing what those children could do, what Ava was doing. The buzz of magic thickened the air, like the feeling before a lightning strike, only there was no sudden, sharp shock of relief. They ran through the streets, passing soldiers clearing people from their houses, and city folk fleeing in fear, but no matter how fast they went, they couldn’t outrun the dread that followed.
“We’re almost there,” Lara said. Her voice was tight. She glanced behind them. “Do you think the magicians will be ready for them?”
“They will be,” Briar said. “The soldiers will have warned them.” With the overwhelming power of this magic, there was no way the magicians could have missed it. The real question was, would they fare any better than the soldiers had?