Sisters of Shadow and Light

by Sara B. Larson

  Halvor was quiet for a long moment. “And where would you find rope strong enough and long enough to accomplish this?”

  I tried not to let myself grin. “Sami and I found a bunch of it in the stables a couple of years ago. We’ve never had any use for it, so it should still be there.”

  “Heavy rope? Strong enough for full-grown adults to climb down?” He stepped toward the windows, pressing his hand against the glass as if testing the thickness.

  “No, it’s some old twine. You don’t think that would work?”

  Halvor spun around in disbelief—until he noticed my pursed lips and cocked eyebrow. “Oh. You’re mocking me.”

  “No, I’m teasing you. You insulted me by asking such a question. Of course it’s thick, strong rope. I wouldn’t have considered this plan otherwise.”

  “Right. Of course.” He had the grace to look chastised. “Since you have obviously thought this through quite a bit already, how do you intend to break the window? Paladin glass is extremely strong. Honestly, I’m not sure what it would take to shatter it.”

  “I don’t know.” Then my gaze focused on the wall behind him. I gestured to the side of the room. “Would one of those do the trick?”

  His eyes widened. “I should hope so.”

  I wasn’t exactly familiar with weaponry, but the ones hanging on the walls appeared to be pretty terrifying—and hefty—in my opinion. I wasn’t even sure I would be able to lift some of the larger ones on my own, but with Halvor’s help …

  “Which one do you think will work best?” I headed toward a massive ball with spikes all over the surface, attached to a long, thick piece of wood. “This one looks promising.”

  “That mace probably weighs as much as you do,” Halvor commented.

  “Then come help me.”

  “You want to do this now?” He came up beside me.

  “Of course. Sami can’t keep drugging my mother, night after night. This is our chance.” I reached out toward the mace, as Halvor had called it, but right at that moment I thought I heard something and paused with my hand outstretched. “Did you hear—”

  “Zuhra!”

  My name echoed through the citadel, a little louder this time, accompanied by the slapping of feet against the stone floors. Halvor and I shared an alarmed glance and then I sprinted back across the room, toward Sami, who was still shouting my name. Something horrible must have happened for her to be so reckless, even with my mother having taken a sleeping draught.

  “Sami, I’m here!”

  She was already halfway down the hallway when I burst out of the Hall of Miracles, my heart in my throat.

  Sami reached for me as if she could will me to her side; her face was mottled red and sweat slipped down her cheeks, dampening her gray hairline. “Zuhra—it’s Inara—she’s missing!”

  SEVENTEEN

  Everything inside me went cold. “No … that’s not possible.”

  “I went to check on your mother—to make sure she was still fast asleep—but Inara’s door was open. I’ve been searching and searching but I can’t find her.”

  “No,” I repeated, “I got her in bed, I locked her door…”

  But a sudden nausea seized my stomach. Had I locked it? I’d been so eager to get out into the citadel tonight—to get to Halvor and the Hall of Miracles—what if I’d forgotten? The only reason I was trying to do any of this was to help her, to protect her, and instead—

  “Where have you looked?” Halvor asked, his voice as calm as mine was frantic. If I hadn’t suspected he harbored feelings for my sister, I would have thought he didn’t even care she was missing.

  “All the main rooms. I even checked the doors that lead outside, but they’re all still locked.”

  At least I didn’t have to worry about her being outside. But I couldn’t keep from thinking about her falling down the stairs only a couple nights ago, when I’d been locked up. She’d been lucky to only suffer a broken leg. What if she fell again?

  “If we split up, we will be able to cover more ground. Let’s each take a section of the citadel,” Halvor suggested.

  “But she’s frightened of you,” Sami pointed out. “She may just run away from you again.”

  He grimaced. “Then I will go with you or Zuhra.”

  “I don’t care who goes with who. There’s no time for this!” I turned on my heel and rushed back the way we’d come only a few minutes ago, calling out her name. I didn’t even care if I woke my mother—the only thing that mattered was finding Inara and making sure she was safe.

  The darkness that had been heavy before was oppressive now, a thick, menacing blanket of concealment that turned my skin to ice as I dashed from room to room, calling Inara’s name. Terror beat alongside my blood with every empty space I searched, every abandoned hallway I raced down, every empty echo of my voice returning back to me with no sight or sound of my sister.

  Halvor was at my side, searching the rooms opposite the ones I went in, but I was hardly even aware of him. Somehow Inara had been swallowed up by the citadel. Panic fluttered in my chest, raced through my veins. I looked in the rooms for her even as images of finding her broken at the base of a staircase flashed through my mind.

  When we’d gone through nearly every door in the wing where all the rooms we used were Halvor finally grabbed my arm and pulled me to a stop. “We’ve searched everywhere in this part of the citadel more than once.” His calm mien had slowly crumbled until he sounded as panicked as I felt. “Where else could she be?”

  “I don’t know!” I snapped, even though I knew this wasn’t his fault. I was the one who had left her room unlocked. If something happened to her, I would only have myself to blame. “Maybe she got past us somehow.”

  We stood outside my mother’s door. None of us had dared open it, but if there was any chance she’d somehow gone in there …

  I took a deep breath and turned the handle.

  The room was dark and silent, except for the soft murmur of my mother’s breathing. I swept the shadowed corners and empty chairs quickly. Nothing. Despite the rush, my gaze landed on my mother. Her hair was unbound, a dark pillow beneath her head, and her mouth slightly parted. In sleep her face was relaxed, all of the tension, the imperiousness, smoothed away by whatever her dreams held. As I watched, her eyes fluttered and she mumbled something, her hand flexing against the sheet she held near her cheek. Unexpectedly I had to blink hard a few times to clear my vision. She looked a decade younger asleep. She looked like a mother I could have loved, could have counted as one of my dearest friends.

  Steeling my heart against the sidling remorse, I spun on my heel and marched back out, shutting the door firmly behind me.

  Halvor opened his mouth to ask, but took one look at my face and shut it again.

  “Should we go back to the south wing?” he finally ventured. “Has she ever gone there?”

  An icy fist of panic seized my stomach and clenched. “Yes,” I whispered. Then I took off at a dead run. As a child, we’d found her standing in front of the doors to the Hall of Miracles more than once. Doors that had remained firmly shut our entire lives—until tonight. A door that, in our haste, we’d left open because it was too heavy to take the time to shut.

  We rushed back across the citadel, calling for her the entire way, without a response. Every empty hallway urged me to go faster, every darkened staircase tightened that cold grip on my stomach. Soon we were shouting Inara’s name as loud as we could, heedless of my mother. If we hadn’t woken her yet, I had no doubt she would continue to sleep for many hours yet to come.

  “Inara!” Halvor called out, the timber of his voice a deep counterpoint to my higher one.

  “Nara! Please, where are you?”

  When we turned the corner the door to the Hall of Miracles was ajar at the end of the hallway, just as I feared.

  And we were just in time to see a slip of white disappear around it. My heart lurched beneath the cage of my ribs.

  We sprinted for
the room full of weapons, any number of which could be fatal if mishandled.

  “Inara!”

  “Nara!”

  Halvor’s boots thudded down the hallway, his longer legs outdistancing mine even though I was pushing myself as hard as I could. The hard stones jarred my body with each step, my blood a roar in my ears, nearly drowning out our panicked shouts.

  “Nara!”

  We ran as fast as we could, but no matter how quickly I pumped my arms and forced my legs to move, the hallway felt interminable.

  Halvor made it through the open doors moments before I did. I was in such a rush I misjudged the opening and slammed one of my shoulders into the heavy wood. With a cry of pain, I stumbled into the Hall of Miracles to see Halvor racing toward Inara. She had ignored the weapons in favor of the staircase—and the doorway beyond.

  “Inara—don’t!”

  I didn’t even understand my terror—but something inside me simultaneously urged me to get closer to the door while screaming to keep Inara away from there.

  Halvor hit the bottom step, his arm outstretched, just as Inara reached for the handle.

  The moment she touched it, her veins exploded with light, glowing as brightly as I’d ever seen them, the blue fire rushing from her eyes, down her throat, across her arms to her hands. But rather than stopping there, it continued out of her body, bleeding across the massive door, spreading through the carvings faster and faster, until every whorl and swirl had lit up, glowing as brightly as Inara’s eyes.

  I froze in the center of the room, staring.

  The gateway.

  And then she flung her head back and screamed—a noise of such agony it ripped through me as if she’d hurled one of the weapons surrounding us through my chest.

  Halvor was ignited back into motion as her body curled backward. She looked as if she were in the throes of passion—or such extreme torment her spine couldn’t hold her upright.

  All other thoughts receded, leaving only an innate, almost guttural response: I ran to my sister.

  I had no idea what I could do—I had no idea what was happening—I only knew my sister was suffering and I had to stop it somehow. Halvor reached her first and grabbed her arm to try to pull her hand free. A spark of blue flame exploded between them and he was flung backward so far he cleared the stairs entirely and slammed to the ground on his back, the crack of his skull echoing over the thudding of my heart in my ears.

  He didn’t move again.

  I sprinted past, not daring to stop, even as my heart staggered within my chest.

  Terror ran thick and hot in my blood as I dashed up the stairs.

  With visible effort Inara turned her head toward me, every muscle in her neck straining, the blue fire rushing through her body, her eyes nearly blinding.

  “No—Zuhra—no—” Each word tore through her throat, a half-panted, half-screamed warning. Past the unimaginably bright glow of her eyes and the veins in her skin, there was lucidity in her face. Lucidity and unadulterated terror.

  I paused on the top stair. “Let go!”

  “I—can’t—”

  The door almost looked alive from where I stood, the blue fire racing over and through it. Inara’s power somehow flowed within the wood—so much, I couldn’t even comprehend it.

  I glanced over my shoulder at where Halvor still lay on the ground. I couldn’t even tell if his chest was moving. Helpless tears burned in my eyes. Her power had done that to him—could do that to me.

  “Try, Nara. Try to let go,” I urged as tears spilled out onto my cheeks.

  The muscles in her arms strained beneath the blue glow of her power, but nothing happened.

  “I—I—can’t—” she panted again, her own cheeks wet with shimmering cerulean tears that left iridescent trails on her skin.

  Suddenly the door shuddered, as if an earthquake had gone through the citadel, but the floor was still beneath my feet.

  Inara’s sudden scream tore through me. Her head flung backward as a fresh wave of even brighter blue rushed through her body and into the door.

  It was killing her.

  I didn’t care what it would do to me, I didn’t care about anything except my sister. All hesitation erased by her agony, I stretched out and grabbed her free arm, clutching her with every ounce of strength I had, tensed for the blow to come.

  A shock went through my body, stunning me, but unlike Halvor I wasn’t flung away from my sister. Rather, whatever force held her captive to the door latched onto me as well. Instead of wrenching her free as I’d intended, I was now trapped beside her, my hand frozen to her arm. Something rushed through my body, hot and heady, like blood, only … more. With it came a roar, like the crash of thunder and the pounding of hooves and the clamoring of a thousand heartbeats all at once, filling me, consuming me, drowning me.

  Inara’s power.

  This was what she lived with every moment of every day?

  Fresh tears tracked down my cheeks as Inara strained to turn her head toward me again.

  “I’m—sorry—” I tried to force my mouth to form the words, but everything hurt. I was being torn apart from the inside, scorched into pieces. Ravaged by the Paladin fire that her body could contain and wield, but mine couldn’t.

  The door shuddered once more. But this time, the glowing carvings wavered as if they were little more than a mirage; what had been solid wood and iron melted into nothing—air and light and power and nothing more.

  And then, with a sudden surge that ripped through Inara into me, something burst through the glowing doorway. It was massive, so large it slammed into both of us, knocking both me and Inara backward, finally cleaving us away from the gateway’s hold.

  My head cracked on the edge of the stairs. I lay sprawled on my back, breathless for one long moment.

  “Zuhra! Move!”

  Dimly, I recognized Halvor’s deeper voice shouting at me.

  I blinked. Once. Then again.

  “Zuhra!”

  A muted panic pulsed within me, a distant memory of fear beneath the sharp throb of pain in my skull. Something was wrong and I needed to move. But I hurt. Everywhere. I tried to roll over to my knees. My head swam sickeningly, hot warmth running down my neck. Blood, I realized, my vision narrowing in on the crimson puddle of it below me. My blood.

  And then an inhuman roar tore through the air, so loud it made the stones beneath me vibrate, followed by a scream that turned my veins to ice.

  Blinking the blood out of my eyes, I lifted my head to see a Scylla—a creature straight from my most terrifying nightmares made flesh—flapping its massive, leathery wings to hover just above Halvor with Inara crouched behind him.

  “No!” I screamed, my panic rushing back up in full force as the last of the haze from hitting my head receded.

  Halvor flung his arms out in front of Inara, trying to protect her. The beast had a body like a horse, except it was covered in scales, its front legs ended in claws instead of hooves, and its head was abnormally round, more than half of it comprised of a mouth full of row after row of jagged, flesh-tearing teeth.

  A rakasa. There was a rakasa in the citadel.

  I shoved off of my hands to clamber to my feet, my gaze going to the weapons on the wall—they were our only hope—

  Something wrapped around my ankle and yanked, slamming me back to the ground, my chest hitting first, then my jaw with a horrific crunch.

  “Zuhra!”

  Inara’s scream was a dull echo over the roar of the beast, just as whatever had my ankle pulled again—dragging me through the door.

  “Nara!”

  My last glimpse of my sister was of her head turned to me, her mouth forming my name, her eyes wide with terror, just as the rakasa dove toward Halvor, its jaws opened wide.

  And then Inara, Halvor, the beast, and the citadel were gone.

  PART 2

  SISTER OF LIGHT

  EIGHTEEN

  INARA

  Silence.

  The co
nstant roar was gone entirely.

  And so was Zuhra.

  I stared at the door, now gone dark.

  A bone-scraping scream split the sudden quiet behind me, followed by a roar—unlike any I’d heard before—so loud the stones shuddered beneath my feet. I whirled just in time to see the horrifying monster that had burst through the doorway drop the boy out of its bloody maw. His body slapped against the stones like little more than a discarded plaything.

  Halvor. The memory of his name surged through me alongside the burn of my desperation. I was immobilized by horror, staring at his lifeless body, his shoulder and torso torn into fleshy shreds. Go to him. Go to him, now! But my feet wouldn’t obey.

  And then the beast turned eyes made of darkness and endless night on me. Terror, thick and heavy as ice, froze my limbs in place. My heart raced beneath my rib cage, pumping blood hot with panic as fast as it was capable to counteract the cold fear, but it wasn’t enough. I trembled uselessly, a feeble mouse caught in the snare of its own weakness, unable to move as the beast dove toward me. I squeezed my eyes shut and turned my head, bracing for the agony that was surely coming.

  But instead of a death blow from the monster’s mouth, its claws seared through my skin as it snatched me and dragged me off the ground.

  A scream rent the air and it took me a moment to realize it had come from me. Massive leathery wings beat above me, carrying us toward the two-story-high glass windows. Blistering panic finally beat out the icy terror as I realized the monster intended to break through the windows, carrying me out of the citadel. I twisted and writhed, desperate to free myself, but the creature’s claws only dug in, slicing through flesh and even bone. A deluge of agony crashed over me, but I loosed an almost inhuman roar of my own and thrashed even harder. I couldn’t give up—if I did, I was lost—