“You betrayed us!” Sol shouted at her from the trees. “We trusted you.”
Katrine pushed herself away from Vara and her lips curled. “Flameskin,” she spat.
She held out a hand, and Sol jerked forward. The energy in her emberstone was yanked through her and shot out of her hand. Fire burned the cuffs of her stolen Flameskin coat as Katrine jerked Sol’s flames from her body and into her fingers.
Sol had no control over her body as fire was forced from her, squeezed out of her like water rung from a rag. Sol’s bow fell from her hands and she swung out her arms wildly, searching for something to hold on to, but the flames yanked her forward into the air. She tumbled off the branch and out of the tree.
“Sol!” Kelan shouted.
He leapt out from behind the tree and broke her fall with his body. They both hit the ground hard, and he gasped as he smashed his shoulder into the ground. Sol bounced off him and hit the ground, and still the fire flowed out of her hands and into Saint Katrine.
Kelan gasped as Katrine wrenched flames from his body, as well. The wraiths fired on the Tokkens, but Katrine incinerated the arrow shafts with fire. One stray arrow grazed Queen Vara’s arm.
Katrine put out both hands, drawing flames from all the wraiths in the trees. She immobilized them and sucked them dry. Kelan rolled over to Sol and ripped off the emberstone she had tied to her arm with a leather band. He clutched it in his hand and fire ceased flowing from their skin. They were once again flameless.
“Enough,” Queen Vara shouted, grabbing Saint Katrine’s arm. Fire stopped draining from the wraiths’ hands, and Katrine sagged against the queen. The ground was littered with wraiths, several of whom had also fallen from the trees.
“That girl is wearing a Flameskin soldier’s uniform,” Katrine said. She trod unsteadily toward Sol, who crawled backward and away from her. Kelan scrambled to his feet in front of Sol and lifted his sword.
“Leave us in peace,” he said. “There are only children who live here, and we have no desire to attack Tokkedal.”
Katrine frowned at him. “Put down your sword, boy.”
“The ship is already here, waiting to take you away. Katrine’s going to accompany you to the shore,” Queen Vara said.
“The ship is here?” Marta asked.
“The Flameskin Army marched on the Hivid Wood, and I had to act or lose the haven entirely.” Queen Vara stripped off her coat. Blood ran down her arm from the cut on her bicep. She rested a hand on one of the emberstones on Katrine’s arm and then traced the cut with a burning finger.
The queen was a mage.
“You aren’t here to kill us?” Marta asked the saint.
“My desire is only to end the war, not kill Flameskins,” Katrine said. “All Flameskins left after the war is over will be brought to the empire’s new capitol, to be protected there.”
Queen Vara gave a bitter laugh as she slid her coat back on. “Protected? Is that what you call it? Imprisonment is what it is.”
Katrine’s face darkened. “I have sworn to do what I can to protect Nordby. I know as well as any how dangerous Flameskins are.”
“Is that where we’re going then? The capital?” Sol asked. She held tight to Kelan’s hand.
“No,” Katrine said. “Vara has bought your freedom with her crown.”
Vara sighed. “I refuse to abdicate until the haven has boarded that ship.”
“And I’m here to ensure no Flameskins are left in Tokkedal.”
Chapter 60
Kelan
They walked through the night to reach the distant coastline. Kelan was too bloodied and burned to manage carrying any of the children, but Azalea clung to his hand and walked the whole way herself. Everyone who was well enough and old enough to handle the weight was carrying some toddler in their arms or on their back. Sol made Lotti and Dotti take turns riding on her back. Even Saint Katrine carried a child in her arms as they trekked across the forest.
It was a long walk, and Kelan’s body ached, but he had his pyra to strengthen him and dull the pain, and he was buoyed by his hope.
“I just don’t understand it,” Sol said.
“Ingrid was Vara’s half-sister and they grew up together. Vara gave up her crown to save us,” Kelan said.
“No, your pyra. How are you not possessed?” she asked.
“I don’t know. I don’t understand it, either.” Was it just the passage of time? He hadn’t taken off his emberstone since Nilsa attacked them at the Cassian border.
But if it was time that had reduced his pyra’s power, why couldn’t Ingrid and Rask remove their emberstones without becoming possessed? No, it had to be something else.
They crested the last hill and the ocean came into view before them. Beside him, Sol gasped. The dawn had painted the sky with fire, and the sea sparkled blue and gold. It was a breathtaking view.
Just beyond the beach, a ship waited for them in the swells.
The wraiths whooped and shouted and raced down the hill toward the beach. Even Azalea joined in.
Kelan took Sol’s hand.
“The ocean is so beautiful,” she murmured. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
They hurried down the hill with their fingers intertwined. Sol scooped up a handful of sand and laughed as it trickled through her fingers. The air was briny from the seaweed strewn across the beach, and Kelan tasted salty air for the first time in years.
Azalea returned to them with wet shoes and a handful of mussel shells that shone an iridescent purple. “Look!”
The first rowboat full of Flameskins had already set out for the ship, and Marta cheered from the stern.
Saint Katrine stood close to Queen Vara and watched the proceedings with an impassive face. “This banishment to the island is permanent. Should any of you return, you will be hunted down and taken to the capital.”
“They know,” Queen Vara said. “They won’t return to Tokkedal.”
The ship’s captain had come ashore and handed Saint Katrine a heavy basket. Katrine peeked inside it before sighing and handing it to Queen Vara. Then she rubbed her red eyes and retreated to the other side of the beach with her arms crossed tight over her chest.
Queen Vara set the basket at her feet and waved Sol and Kelan over.
They approached cautiously and bowed. “We are indebted to you,” Kelan said.
“I can’t right all the wrongs of my father, but I’ve done what I can.” She glanced at the basket. “If you remember, I said I would ask a favor from you both on this beach.”
“What is it?” Sol asked. She held tight to Kelan’s hand.
The queen nodded toward the basket at her feet. “This is my favor.”
Sol knelt and lifted the blanket covering the basket. “What—?"
There was a baby with cherubic cheeks and a fluff of dark hair on its head. It slept soundly, lulled by the sound of the breaking waves.
“I don’t understand,” Kelan said. What did Vara want them to do with it?
“She’ll go with you to the colony,” Vara said.
“Is she a Flameskin, too?” Sol asked.
Queen Vara glanced away. “We won’t know until she’s older, but I believe she’ll be a Flameskin, or perhaps something more.”
“Something more?” Kelan asked. He followed Vara’s gaze. She was staring at Saint Katrine.
Kelan gaped. “It’s Katrine’s—”
“She’s yours now. You’ll raise her as your own child. That is my favor. And it is my wish that she never know you two weren’t her parents.”
Kelan stared at the baby. At least the other children in the haven could walk and communicate. This thing was helpless. When they got to the island there would be houses to build and fields to plant. How were they supposed to take care of a baby as well? There were already too many children on this ship.
“We’ll do it,” Sol said.
“Sol,” Kelan whispered. “Are you sure?”
“Ingrid will help us. And w
e can’t very well refuse.”
“But this is different. This is pretending she’s ours. This isn’t like taking care of Azalea, like we’ve been doing.”
“Who else then? Why shouldn’t this baby have parents?”
Kelan sighed. Sol had a habit of jumping through windows without thinking through the long-term consequences.
Sol turned back to the queen. “Does she have a name?”
“No. You can name her.”
“We’d be honored to have her,” Sol said and smiled. Kelan rubbed his forehead with his palm. Honored? That’s what she called getting a baby dumped on them?
“Thank you,” the queen said, looking relieved. “Her mother—” the queen’s gaze flicked to Katrine again. “I’ll tell her mother she is in good hands. I wish you luck in your new life on the island, and a safe voyage.”
The queen bowed low and turned to walk away.
“Wait,” Sol said. “My family, in Hillerod. They don’t know that I won’t come back.”
“I will ensure they receive word you are safe and well.”
Sol’s face was pinched. “Thank you.”
The queen strode toward Katrine. She unwound the black braid that crowned her head, letting her hair fall loose over her back. Then she removed the gold circlet from her head and handed it to the saint.
Azalea approached Sol cautiously and peered into the basket.
“You have a new sister, Azalea,” Sol said.
Kelan sighed. They hadn’t just adopted one daughter, now they’d adopted two.
Sol looked up and laughed when she saw his face. “What?”
He shook his head and sprawled on the sand beside her. “I’m just happy to finally have somewhere we’ll be safe.”
“No more running,” she whispered and took his hand.
A sudden gust of wind whipped across the beach and blew through the trees. Sol sat up and her eyes went wide as the wind whistled in their ears.
He sat up and could hear the name the wind whispered: Sol. Sol. Sol.
“It’s the mountains.” She shook her head and wrapped her arms tight around Kelan. “No. I’m not going back. I don’t know why the mountains call to me, but I won’t leave you.”
Kelan stared at the trees as the wind yanked at the boughs. They stopped sighing her name, and now were singing a different lament. “The winds howl with the cries of men. The mountain has stolen their hearts,” he murmured.
She put a hand on his chest. “I don’t need to go back to the Ulves. I thought my heart would stay there in the mountains, but it’s here, Kelan. It’s wherever you are.”
He kissed the tip of her nose. “Maybe you still have your heart, but mine was plucked out long ago.”
She laughed as she slid her hand beneath the collar of his shirt and pulled gently on his pyra. His worry and his hope and his love bled into her. As she drew his fire into her, his pyra dampened until his blood ran clean of its taint.
Kelan blinked. He looked down at her hand pressed against his skin and then grinned. “Sol. I think I know why I’m not possessed anymore.”
“You do?”
“Are you going to board?” Ingrid called. She was up to her waist in water, holding the rowboat in place and waving for them to get on.
Kelan picked up the baby’s basket, and Sol took Azalea’s hand.
He kissed Sol softly on the cheek as they turned their backs on the trees and faced the sea.
Epilogue
Sol
The island was a barren landscape of dry, dead grass and crooked, wind-blown pines. There was more rock and sand than soil. It was a dry and desolate place that reeked with the decay of kelp stranded on the beach.
The ship was anchored offshore, and Sol and Kelan had come ashore with Ingrid and Silas to inspect their new home.
Sol wandered the island alongside Kelan, looking under rocks and walking up and down the beach. The island wasn’t large, and its only feature was the small hill in the center. Sol took Kelan’s hand, and they raced to the top of the hill. From there, amid the dry grass, the whole island came into view, but there wasn’t much to see. Only desiccated pines and empty beaches.
They were supposed to farm here and create a new life here? Sol tried and failed to imagine how they could turn this place into something livable.
“Well,” Kelan said, “at least we have the boat to live on for a while. Just think how fun it will be to be crammed in with the children all winter.”
She knew he was trying to get a smile out of her, but Sol could do nothing more than sigh. She had left behind her beautiful mountains for this wasteland?
But at least Kelan was beside her. She squeezed his hand and leaned against him.
There was a warmth in her pocket that swelled and grew and made her body tingle. She reached into her pocket and pulled out the glowing acorn the Ulves had given to her. It whispered and called to her. It wanted to be planted.
Sol bent down and scooped aside a handful of packed gravel to plant the seed at the top of the hill.
“What do you think it will grow?” Kelan asked.
“Something to help me remember where I came from.”
The ground below them buckled, and a green sapling shot out of the earth. Kelan yanked Sol backward, and they scrambled away as a tree grew and swelled and spread its massive canopy over their heads. An enormous trunk erupted through the hard soil, pushing packed earth out in clods and chunks as the tree expanded.
The ground shook beneath their feet. Sol clung to Kelan as mountains pierced the sea like spears, rising up to greet the sky and ring their tiny island. Green blankets of grass spilled down the sides of the mountains and across the desolate earth. Wildflowers sprung up around their feet. A waterfall poured from one of the peaks and a river tumbled down the mountainside and poured into the sea.
The ship, which had once been offshore, was now ringed by mountains and swayed in a lagoon at the center of the new island. Cliffs had risen up behind the ship, and a narrow channel cut through the mountains toward the ocean.
As abruptly as it had shifted, the earth fell still once more. Sol stood and spun in a slow circle, gazing at the peaks of the mountains around her. They were different from the ones at home, and yet familiar.
She placed her hand on the trunk of the great oak that had sprung out of the hillside. Energy and life buzzed beneath the tree’s bark.
She looked up at Kelan and smiled. “Now, I’m home.”
The End
The story continues with Flameskin.
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Acknowledgments
I’d like to first thank my husband for being my cheerleader, my first reader, and for encouraging me to pursue my dreams. I couldn’t do this without you! I also wouldn’t stay sane for very long either.
And of course I have to thank my wonderful editor, Theodora Bryant who made this novel twice as good (literally) and answered my thousands of questions.
Thank you to Amanda for the adorable headings and Pauliina for the amazing illustrations. Your art captured the beauty of the world I was trying to create.
And thank you to my amazing Kickstarter backers who made this project a reality. And a special thanks to David and JoLynn Anderson, Tracie Brown, Tucker and Ashley Longley, Pam McMahon, Marlin, Stephen Ballentine, Tony Salva, Bruce “Hoss” Collins, S Busby, Travis Kelly Wilson, Omar Mazin, Chand Svare Ghei, and Doc Bowman. You are all wonderful!
And thank you to the readers for sticking with me until the end. I wouldn’t be here without you!
About the Author
Camille Longley is the author of the Flameskin Chronicles and the Talons and Teeth series. She grew up in Arizona, graduated from Brigham Young University, and now lives in the Bay Area with her husband and daughter. She can be found at camillelongley.com.
Contents
1. Sol
2. K
elan
3. Sol
4. Kelan
5. Sol
6. Kelan
7. Sol
8. Kelan
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10. Kelan
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Firefrost: A Flameskin Chronicles Novel Page 32