by J. F. Penn
Dawn looked up at Daniel. After a moment, the boy nodded.
They swam to the opposite side of the sunken church and Mila peered out the little window into the murky water. There could be more creatures waiting, but they had no time to wait and see.
She held her hands out, and the children took them, trusting her. Their skin reminded her of Ekon, a dissolving of flesh to water, something only their kind could do. She had to take these children home.
They darted together out into the gloom. None of them looked back.
As the beam fell, Elf jerked her arms up, shielding herself with magic and pushing the heavy beam toward Sir Douglas. The weight of the wood crushed him to the floor, pinning what remained of his body under the smoldering shaft. Burning embers tumbled down around them as the flames took hold.
Two more booms shook the building.
Screams from the panicked crowd outside.
Another beam came loose and crashed down. It glanced off Elf’s shoulder, sending her to the ground with a cry. The mutant bodyguards surged forward. One enormous brute picked the young woman up in his arms, shielding her as they ran from the building even as the beams tumbled down behind them.
Zoe’s chair tipped over in the blast and Sienna dived to stop her head hitting the floor. She wrapped her arms around her friend; her face only inches from where Sir Douglas lay unmoving, half-crushed beneath the fallen beam. His remaining eyelid flickered, and he breathed in shallow gasps, his lungs clearly constricted by the weight.
Perry sprawled only meters away, his body broken, his magic siphoned away, his mind possibly damaged beyond repair.
The shouts of a frantic crowd came from outside through the roar of the flames that licked at the beams. The shifting sound of wood collapsing. It wouldn’t be long until they were buried in here or burned alive.
But there was one way out.
“Perry!” Sienna shouted, weeping as she called for her friend. “Can you hear me?”
If she could get to him, she could mapwalk them all out of here.
The sound of running footsteps and the creak of wood.
Two figures entered the disintegrating building, big men with weapons at their sides, faces obscured by the smoke. Sienna ducked quickly back behind the burning beam, desperately hoping they wouldn’t see her.
“Sienna?”
His voice was everything she had longed for. Sienna looked out under the beam and her heart leapt at seeing the regal profile silhouetted against the flames.
“Finn. Finn, I’m here.”
He turned at her voice. Their eyes met, and the world melted away. For a second, Sienna could believe that everything would work out, that he would save her and they would escape this terrible place and be together.
Then the building shifted once more, flames crackled and another beam fractured above her head.
Finn and his companion darted forward, shouldering through the burning wood, sheltering Sienna as they untied Zoe from the chair.
“Titus, carry her outside. I’ll be right behind you.”
Titus nodded, hoisting Zoe into his arms and barreling back out into the chaos beyond.
Finn put his arms around Sienna, pulling her close to his chest, his hands tender on her skin.
He looked down at Sir Douglas. “What about him?”
Sienna shook her head. “Perry first, he’s over there. He’s hurt.”
Together, they climbed over the beams and dug through the fallen wood. Perry lay on his back, his face pale and waxy, ash in his hair, soot smeared over his skin. His eyes fluttered open as they helped him up to a sitting position.
“My father?” His voice rasped from flame-cracked lips.
Sienna pointed to the fallen beam. “He’s pinned. Elf took his magic and if he’s not dead already, he will be soon.”
Perry tried to get up, but his legs crumpled beneath him.
Finn took his weight. “We have to get out of here. The building could collapse at any minute.”
“Please. I need to see him.”
Sienna could see the conflict in Finn’s expression, his jawline taut with tension. The rebel leader had faced his own father on a battlefield, a man who still held the power of life and death over him.
Finn nodded, swiftly lifting Perry to his feet and helping him around the back of the beam to where his father lay.
Sir Douglas looked dead, a crushed corpse, but as Perry knelt and rested a hand on his blackened brow, the man opened his one good eye.
His lips parted in a sigh. “Son,” he whispered.
Perry leaned closer, tears spilling down his cheeks. “I’m so sorry, Dad.”
Sir Douglas closed his eye a moment and then opened it again. “Inside my cloak. Reach in.”
Perry frowned and bent to his father’s chest, easing his hand inside the burned clothing. He couldn’t help but touch the weeping, blistered flesh, coating his fingers in sticky blood. But Sir Douglas was beyond feeling anymore and Perry thrust his hand in further. A second later, he withdrew his hand and uncurled his bloody fingers.
Sienna gasped at the sight of her grandfather’s silver compass. Stolen by the man who had murdered him one stormy night in Bath in the grove of sacred plane trees in the center of the Druid’s circle.
Sir Douglas looked up at Sienna. “Use it once more,” he whispered, his voice slowing. “For Galileo.”
His eye drooped shut as he let out a final breath. His head lolled to one side and Perry let out a sob.
A beam cracked overhead, and the sound of trampling footsteps came from outside.
“We’re out of time.” Finn grabbed Perry with one arm, pulling him to his feet while he helped Sienna with the other.
The floorboards creaked underfoot, weakening even as they darted between falling beams. Burning embers and ash rained down as smoke filled the building with choking fumes. Sienna could barely see what direction they should go in, but Finn dragged them on.
A light ahead. The back door gaped open, the staircase burning up from below.
“Jump!” Finn shouted, half-dragging Perry over the edge. Sienna followed close behind, rolling as she hit the hard ground behind the scorching temple.
The crackling sound of flames filled the air alongside the screams and shouts of the panicked crowd. They flowed like a river away from the plaza, back to the barracks and shacks at the edges of the camp. Sienna pushed herself up quickly as two men ran past, unheeding of her on the ground. Another inch closer and they would have trampled her.
She stood up and turned to find Finn helping Perry, and Titus waiting with Zoe over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry. Sienna wanted to be the one in Finn’s arms, but Perry’s face was blanched with grief and the aftermath of whatever Elf had done to him. She didn’t know whether he still had any magic left, but they couldn’t wait to find out.
“This way,” Titus shouted and headed away up the hill, joining the throng.
Finn nodded at Sienna. “I’ll help Perry. Go. I’ll be right behind you.”
Whatever was unsaid between them could wait. She turned and jogged after Titus, merging with the crowd and ducking down as they passed the mutant guards. But the sentries were distracted and waved everyone on, eyes fixed on the burning temple and the ruins of the plaza beyond.
At the top of the hill, Sienna turned to see what had them so mesmerized. The waters ran red at the edge of the lake, bodies torn apart by the giant eels that writhed in the shallows, razor-sharp teeth slashing soft flesh in a feeding frenzy. The explosions must have driven some of the crowd into the water, only to be met by the monsters that lurked just below the surface.
Sienna stifled a sob as she thought of Mila down there with the children. “Please make it back,” she whispered, then turned and ran once more.
She caught up with Titus on the edge of the shantytown as he easily carried Zoe’s slight frame over his broad shoulders. He turned to greet her, and she noticed the stain of blue on his fingertips.
He not
iced her look and raised an eyebrow. “I’m a chemist.”
She smiled. “Useful skill. Was that—?”
Titus nodded. “Our explosions. Yes. We came to the camp to destroy the manufacture of the drug these bastards peddle in the trader towns, but then Finn saw your friend dive into the lake. He can recognize an Earthsider from a mile away and had an inkling you might be close by.” Titus hesitated for a moment, then sighed. “To be honest, I haven’t seen him this alive for so long.”
Warmth spread through Sienna at his words. Finn had missed her just as much as she had longed for him and that gave her hope.
Zoe stirred. Titus gently lifted her off his shoulders and set her down on the ground. She rubbed her eyes, blinking as she took in her surroundings. “What happened?”
Sienna knelt next to her. “It’s okay. You’re safe now.”
Zoe reached up and grasped her hand, eyes wide in desperation. “Elf. We have to stop her. She’s found a way to drain and concentrate magical power.”
“I know,” Sienna said softly. “That’s how she killed Xander. She almost killed Perry back there and who knows how many others.”
Titus frowned. “She must be the one responsible for adding the mutation magic to the Liberation.”
Zoe nodded. “Yes, but it’s much more than that. I heard her telling the old man, Sir Douglas, how she could use the shadow portal in the Tower of the Winds to reach all the Borderlands at once. How she could somehow bleed power from everywhere, then use it to finally blow apart the border and retake Earthside. I saw the look on his face, Sienna. He was scared. It must be possible. We have to stop her.”
21
Together, they made their way back to the cave. Titus helped Zoe and Sienna over the wall into the rubbish heap beyond and Finn half-carried Perry, who grew weaker with every passing minute.
No one tried to stop them. No one even paid any attention as they climbed away from the mutant camp into the sanctuary of the cave system.
As they approached, Sienna kept looking up at the opening, hoping that Mila might have already arrived. But there was no sign of the Waterwalker, and when they made it inside, Mila had not returned.
Finn helped Perry to rest against the back wall and Zoe curled up next to him, both exhausted. Titus pulled food from his pack and shared it out with water from his canteen.
Sienna sat at the lip of the cave entrance and scanned the hill below for any sign of Mila or approaching danger from the camp. Finn came to sit beside her and she leaned into his warmth.
“I’m so glad you’re here,” she whispered.
He put his arm around her and pulled her close, kissing her hair. “I’m sorry I didn’t make it earlier. You should have told me you were coming.”
Sienna closed her eyes, and they breathed the night air together. Whatever anger and misunderstanding had passed between them mattered little now. There was only the moment and in this crack of time, Sienna belonged to Finn alone.
She raised her head and looked up into his dark eyes, stroked his cheek. He leaned down and in their kiss lay the promise of possibility, the hope that Borderlander and Earthsider could live in peace. A world where the moon rose on all kinds alike.
Sienna wanted to stay in that moment forever, lost in his soft mouth, but the sound of scraping on stone came from below, then the tumble of loose rocks on scree.
They broke apart and looked over the lip of the cave.
Mila scrambled up the incline, two children behind her.
Sienna wanted to shout in excitement, but the sound would echo in the valley and might alert the guards. She restrained her happiness by kissing Finn once more, her smile reflected in his glad expression. The team was wounded, but they were not finished yet.
Mila soon made it to the lip of the cave. She hugged Sienna and Finn, but the children hung back, their faces curious but shy.
“It’s okay.” Mila beckoned them forward. “These are my friends. You’re safe now.”
She introduced them, and the children solemnly nodded in greeting.
Titus pulled out some more food, and the children were soon chattering away happily with the big chemist. Finn went to join them, leaving Mila and Sienna to talk.
They sat at the cave entrance under the light of the moon, the camp below them calm now as the night wore on, intoxicated revelers sleeping off the carnival and the stress of the day, blood and chaos chasing them through nightmares.
“I thought you might not make it back,” Sienna said, taking her friend’s hand. “I saw what those creatures did to bodies on the shoreline.”
Mila squeezed her hand with a rueful smile. “It was pretty crazy down there.” She shook her head. “I just had to go after them … And it’s more than that.” She paused, a moment of silence before a sigh of acceptance. “I need to take the children to Ganvié and to be honest, I want to go home. To my true home, that is.”
Sienna heard the longing in Mila’s voice and wished she could feel that certain about where she belonged.
Mila continued. “I felt something rare under the lake. An elemental joy that has always been out of reach on Earthside. I can’t leave that behind again. I can’t go back to living outside my true nature.”
Sienna smiled. “I know that leaving Ekon was difficult for you. I saw how you transformed when you were with him.”
“I think more of my kind still exist under the waves, but they’ve become one with the water somehow. Perhaps I can find them with Ekon and the twins by my side — after we finish this mission, of course. I’ll come with you to the Tower of the Winds first. We’ll finish this together.”
Sienna sat silent for a moment. She thought of the woman in the mosaic on the cave wall under the impossible mountain. She had been alone — and perhaps that was the only way. Perry and Zoe were injured. Finn and Titus had no magic. Mila would be the only one who could stand with her — but the path ahead was dangerous and Sienna knew she had to face whatever it was alone. If Mila came to the Tower of the Winds, she might not make it out again. She had a chance for happiness, for a life fulfilled, and Sienna wanted that for her friend. Her own future was uncertain, but Mila and the twins could start anew.
“I don’t want you to come,” Sienna said, pushing down the tears that threatened. “I don’t need you, anyway.”
Mila frowned. “What do you mean? I can fight by your side. We’re a team.”
“Not anymore.” Sienna looked into Mila’s eyes. “I don’t want you to bring the children and they need you more than I do. We’ll be fine, Mila, really. I want you to go to Ganvié. If we need you, I’ll send word somehow.”
“If you’re sure.”
“I am.” Sienna put every ounce of confidence into her words, knowing that Mila would follow if she did not dissuade her.
“Then I’ll go to Ganvié tomorrow.” Mila turned to look back into the cave. The others were too far away to hear them. She leaned in close. “But be careful, Sienna. I know something calls you from the Tower of the Winds. I know the marks on your skin have spread.”
Sienna flushed. “Is it obvious?”
“Not to everyone, but you and I … well, we’ve discovered a lot on these last missions. I’ve seen you change to become a powerful Blood Mapwalker. Your destiny draws you on, as does mine.”
“But not together anymore,” Sienna whispered as she leaned in and they hugged, clinging to each other for a moment, then they parted.
“I left Zippy with a friend who loves him,” Mila said. “And a letter for Bridget in the canal boat explaining everything, but I won’t go back this time. I am not of Earthside anymore. Perhaps I never really was.”
Sienna hugged her friend again, hiding her tears against Mila’s hair, smelling the fresh water of the lake on her skin. They sat for a moment, holding each other tight, both aware of an ending they hadn’t expected to experience so soon.
Sienna pulled away and wiped her eyes. “How will you get to Ganvié?”
Mila shrugged. “The w
atercourses will guide us. We’ll travel up river and find our way from there. I’m drawn back somehow, like a compass needle pointing true north.” She looked out at the horizon. “I know Ekon will welcome us.”
“He will.” Sienna rose to her feet. “But I hate goodbyes so this is temporary. I’ll come visit when I can.”
Mila smiled and stood up to join her. “Of course.” She gave a cheeky grin. “And bring Finn with you.”
Sienna looked back into the cave where Finn sat by the fire, the light dancing off his angular cheekbones as he played a dice game with the children. They laughed, leaning on his legs, trusting him instinctively. With their dark skin, they could be his and Sienna was suddenly struck with a glimpse into a possible future.
Finn looked up at her, a question in his eyes.
She smiled and went to join him. They all needed to rest before the day to come.
The rays of dawn reached into the cave and touched Sienna’s cheek. She opened her eyes to see coral light bathing the sleeping group, as if blessed by some heavenly benediction. She nestled back into Finn’s embrace, trying to fix the moment in her mind.
Sienna thought of her father and Bridget back on Earthside, the same dawn rising over the Ministry. Mapwalking had broken their love apart, taken everything from them both. Her father was a crippled husk, his body and mind shattered by that final mission. Bridget had given her very blood to the service of the Ministry, trapped in the guise of the Illuminated for who knows how many generations. Her grandfather’s skin lay in the Blood Gallery, his life sacrificed for a portal he couldn’t even ultimately defend. Sienna pulled his compass from her pocket.
The silver gleamed in the morning light and she opened the case to reveal the five-pointed compass rose and the city of Bath etched in tiny lines within. The abbey, the map shop, the Circus, the river, the canal. Five places to anchor her back to Earthside.
Sienna clutched the compass tightly in her hand. If the border had been open, she could cut herself right now, mapwalk through the power of her blood and take Perry and Zoe home. But she would have to leave Finn behind once more — and besides, the border was still closed, and her fight was here now.