Stormtide

by Den Patrick

  ‘This way,’ said Lidija, gesturing to a room at the end of the hall. ‘There is a window that opens out above the stable. You can hop down to the roof and make your way from there.’

  A soldier appeared at the bottom of the stairs and Lidija gestured towards the man with a flick of her wrist. A mote of white light drifted from her hand and down the staircase. The blinding mote pierced the soldier’s breastplate with a hissing sound. There was a smell of scorched metal before the soldier screamed. Bright light emanated from the gaps between the black armour as the man crumpled.

  Marek and Kristofine hurried down the corridor after Lidija as Exarch Zima stepped over the corpse of the incinerated soldier. The Vigilant’s eyes were hidden behind the bestial mask, but Steiner could feel the weight of his gaze all the same.

  ‘Come on!’ Lidija led them to an empty guest room and opened the window. ‘Quickly now,’ she called over her shoulder as she pushed open the shutters. Steiner slammed the guest-room door closed as Exarch Zima reached the top of the staircase. A moment later and the door began to rattle on its hinges.

  ‘He must be from the earth school,’ muttered Steiner. Marek had already jumped from the window and waited on the flat roof of the stables below. He held out his hands for Kristofine, who jumped without hesitation.

  ‘You next,’ said Lidija.

  ‘We’re not leaving without you,’ replied Steiner. ‘You’ve done so much for us.’

  The shaking of the door reached a fever pitch and the hinges and lock surrendered to Zima’s power. The frame splintered and the door shot forward, knocking Steiner to the floor. Heavy footfalls could be heard on the staircase as Steiner shrugged off the remains of the door and clambered to his feet. Lidija gritted her teeth and flicked out both hands, sending another two motes drifting down the corridor towards the Exarch. Steiner watched Zima smash a door from its frame with a gesture, then sidestep into the room. The blinding motes drifted past him, on down the corridor.

  ‘Frejna’s teeth,’ whispered Lidija. She swung her legs over the windowsill and slipped out of sight. One of the motes of arcane light impacted against the wall while the other hit the door to another guest room. Both motes flared in the gloom and the wood became incandescent; bright flames took hold immediately.

  ‘Steiner!’ came Kristofine’s voice from outside, barely audible above the shouts coming from downstairs. Steiner jumped from the window and felt the roof of the stables give as he landed. Marek’s eyes were wide as the roof shook beneath them all. Steiner reached out to Kristofine as the wooden beams creaked.

  ‘Oh shiii—’

  The roof gave way, depositing him in the stables below, where a bed of hay bales awaited him. They were not as soft as he’d have liked. His feet and knees hurt yet he was still standing. Kristofine swung down through the hole in the ceiling and landed close to him.

  ‘Are you all right?’ she asked, reaching for his face.

  ‘Clipped my head on the way down.’ He pressed a palm to his forehead and felt the hot wetness of his own blood. ‘Where’s my father?’

  They neared the doors to the stable and heard shouting outside. A glimpse through the gaps between the timbers confirmed Exarch Zima had brought all the soldiers he could find.

  ‘It’s no good,’ said Steiner. ‘There are too many of them.’ He turned around when Kristofine didn’t answer. She was already opening two of the stalls and slipping bridle into place on the horses’ heads.

  ‘I can’t ride!’ said Steiner.

  ‘Then you’d best learn because we don’t have a choice.’

  No sooner had they saddled and mounted the horses than Exarch Zima floated down through the gap in the ceiling, his descent slowed by his mastery of the arcane.

  ‘Truly the Emperor has guided me in this undertaking,’ he said calmly. ‘I shall be his vessel of destruction.’

  The soldiers outside opened the stable doors and Steiner and Kristofine put their heels to the horses’ flanks and raced out into the street. Steiner swung the sledgehammer as he passed, connecting with a soldier’s head. The man spun and collapsed to his knees. Crossbow bolts flitted past them and smoke billowed into the night sky. Vostochnyye Lisy was cast in a fiery orange and blood-red light as they fled the inn, the horses throwing their heads this way and that in panic.

  ‘Where is Marek?’ shouted Steiner, but Kristofine didn’t hear him, urging her mount down a side street and racing away. Steiner shook the reins and somehow the horse seemed to know what was required of it. The chestnut mare followed Kristofine and Steiner clung onto the beast’s neck. More crossbow bolts followed them, ricocheting from the stone buildings, or burying themselves in the timber.

  ‘Father,’ breathed Steiner as the horse spirited him away from danger, but there could be no turning back.

  Kristofine led them down every uninviting backstreet that she could find. People opened their shutters to see the commotion as soldiers patrolled the streets, calling out to each other in the gloom. Kristofine brought her horse to a trot and then halted altogether in a narrow, winding alley. Steiner’s mount was not so keen to stop. The skittish horse continued until Steiner wrestled with the reins, forcing it to turn back. Kristofine slipped from the back of her horse with ease and held out her hands to Steiner.

  ‘I’m the dragon rider,’ he said. ‘I think I can get off one—’ but anything else he said was lost as he slipped from the horse’s back and slammed into some barrels.

  ‘I thought we were working together now?’ said Kristofine. ‘Isn’t that what you said?’

  ‘I also said I can be really, really stupid,’ replied Steiner, rubbing his knee. ‘Sorry.’ Both took a moment to put their cloaks on and Steiner made sure the sledgehammer was hidden.

  ‘Why are we dismounting?’ he asked when they’d set their packs on their backs.

  ‘I didn’t want you to fall off and break your neck.’ They spent a moment of nervous laughter as the adrenaline coursed through them. ‘Truthfully, the hooves make too much noise on the cobbles. They’ll attract attention. We’ll have to leave them here.’

  Steiner took a moment to tie the reins to a door handle and hoped someone would find the animal come the morning.

  ‘What now?’ asked Kristofine when they’d composed themselves.

  ‘Now we find my father.’

  They spent hours slipping through the city like the lost spirits. They haunted every darkened lane and alley and waited in doorways for soldiers to pass, breathless with fear, hearts pounding. Sounds of shouting could be heard from a few streets away.

  ‘That’s them,’ said Steiner. ‘That has to be them.’ He launched himself from the shadows to run down the street. Kristofine called after him but he’d left her no choice but to follow. Fire burned in the night, the streets were gilded with fiery orange and sleepers had stumbled from bed, watching the unfolding chaos.

  ‘Is it the inn?’ asked Kristofine, panting to catch her breath. ‘Have we run back to where we started from?’

  Steiner shook his head and gestured that she follow. He snuck down the street, staying close to the buildings, slipping into shadowed doorways whenever he could. Marek and Lidija stood ahead of them a few hundred feet away at a junction. A building behind them was on fire and soldiers blocked every road. Exarch Zima led an honour guard of four soldiers perhaps a hundred feet in front of Steiner.

  ‘Close your shutters!’ the Vigilant screamed at the townsfolk, who had staggered to their windows despite the late hour.

  ‘He doesn’t want anyone to see him using the arcane,’ said Steiner.

  ‘I think he should be more worried about Lidija,’ replied Kristofine.

  A fireball blinked into existence between Lidija’s hands. She stood back to back with Marek, a look of snarling anger on her face. It was difficult to think of her as the kindly innkeeper Steiner had met just yesterday. The fireball raced down the street and wreathed a group of soldiers, knocking them off their feet. There were screams as their cloaks c
aught fire; those who were not already dead began to scald and sear. The other soldiers did not hesitate, charging forward with weapons raised. Marek stepped forward to meet them though he was greatly outnumbered, a look of grim resignation etched on his lined face. Steiner started down the street, pulling the sledgehammer free, a single word on his lips.

  Father.

  The first of the soldiers closed with Marek, who feinted low, sidestepped, and slashed at the back of the man’s neck. The man screamed and fell, writhing on the cobbles as he bled out. Marek barely had time to parry the next soldier’s strike, stumbling backwards but refusing to fall.

  Lidija pierced the darkness with a handful of motes that floated towards their targets with ghostly ease. Three of the soldiers roared in futile fury as the arcane lights found them, piercing the heavy armour and incinerating the men from inside out. The smell of burning flesh and hot metal seared the night air. Two remaining two soldiers were wiser or luckier, throwing themselves to one side, watching the motes sail past them and on down the street.

  Steiner reached Zima’s honour guard and swung hard. The blow took one soldier’s leg with a fierce crack, sending him headlong into his comrade. A moment of confusion seized the men as they realised they had been attacked from behind. All weapons were raised to smite the scarred and swearing youth who had stumbled out of the darkness. Kristofine, trailing Steiner by a dozen feet, ran her sword into a soldier’s side. She clutched the hilt like a spear and had put all her weight behind it. The soldier looked down at the fatal wound and tried to grasp her wrists, but Kristofine snatched the blade away, a gout of blood following after. The soldier gasped and fell to his knees, hands pressed to the wound.

  Steiner blocked one strike, kicked out a soldier’s knee, swung, and smashed a shoulder guard free of the wearer. He spat and swore and promised death like a berserker of the old tales. Another soldier came at him and the sledgehammer knocked the man’s weapon from his hand. Steiner spun slightly with the force of the swing, just in time to see two soldiers punching Marek with armoured fists. They had seized him by the collar and held him fast. Marek sagged and his sword fell from his hand.

  ‘Take him to the docks now!’ bellowed Zima, who had an arm around Lidija’s throat, a knife tip pressed against one ear.

  Steiner swung again and heard the soldier’s neck snap as the sledgehammer caught him across the jaw. The honour guard were no more.

  ‘Stand still or I will kill her!’ shouted Exarch Zima, his bestial mask seemingly alive in the flickering light of the inferno that raged behind him. Steiner looked to Kristofine. All the soldiers were dead but for the two who were dragging Marek’s unconscious body away. Steiner stepped closer to Zima until barely twenty feet separated them.

  ‘Lidija,’ said Steiner, ‘I’m so sorry.’

  The innkeeper grinned at him, her teeth lined with blood. ‘You started this, Steiner,’ she whispered. ‘You gave us hope after so long. I need to you to promise you’ll see it through.’

  ‘Be quiet!’ shouted Zima. He pressed the tip of the knife to her ear and squeezed her throat with his arm.

  ‘I promise,’ said Steiner. ‘I’ll see it through to the bitter end.’

  Lidija closed her eyes. For a single heartbeat there were traces of tears at the corners of her eyes and then her entire body became a searing tongue of fire. Zima, who gripped her around the throat, found that Lidija clung to him just as keenly. The sound he made as he burned was inhuman. He convulsed as Lidija’s living flame brightened, sinking the blade through her skull. The fire blinked out and Zima collapsed on the ground, ravaged by fire.

  Steiner wasted no time, sprinting down the street, desperate to find Marek. Kristofine ran with him but all they found were more soldiers, more fire, more confusion. The sledgehammer’s weight was reassuring and called out for violence. Steiner was all too keen to obey. Instead he found himself wrenched sideways, dragged into an alley by Kristofine. They ran until they were confident no one was following them, then stopped in a small courtyard and regained their breath.

  ‘I have to get him, I have to find him,’ said Steiner, staring at the ground in shock. ‘He’s all I have.’

  ‘No. You have me,’ replied Kristofine. ‘And if you go to him now we’ll all be captured.’

  ‘But he’s my father!’

  ‘You heard what Zima said. They’re going to take him to the ship at the docks. We can’t see this through if we’re captured, can we?’

  ‘And you have a ship of your own, do you?’ said Steiner, frowning.

  ‘We can try and stow away. We might be able to free Marek before they set off.’

  The thought of his father being dragged down the street made him want to howl with rage.

  ‘We can’t sneak aboard a ship full of Imperial soldiers.’ Steiner had regained his breath and tried to calm down enough to think. ‘It’s impossible.’

  ‘They used to say escaping Vladibogdan was impossible too, didn’t they?’ Kristofine gave a small smile and he heard the challenge in her words.

  ‘I don’t have much good fortune when it comes to sneaking onto boats,’ replied Steiner. ‘They tend to leave without me.’

  ‘Not this time.’ Kristofine nodded towards the docks. ‘This time we’ll do it together, for Marek’s sake.’

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  Kimi

  ‘It’s your watch,’ said Marozvolk quietly in the dark. There was barely enough room for a campfire and three people inside the circle of stones, but it was dry and Kimi drew a feeling of calm from the place. Marozvolk handed the Ashen Torment back to Kimi. It still glowed a faint blue, but no more than the starlight far above them.

  ‘They’re still out there,’ said Kimi, more in irritation than enquiry.

  ‘They were created to kill all living things,’ replied Marozvolk as she lay down and pulled a blanket around herself. ‘I doubt they’ll just give up and go home. If they have a home.’

  Tief grumbled and shuffled around in his sleep while Taiga was still and silent beside him. Kimi knelt down and pressed her fingers to the woman’s brow, feeling the heat from her clammy skin.

  ‘Dammit, Frøya,’ whispered Kimi. ‘She’s one of yours. She kept the faith.’ Kimi looked to the heavens. ‘If you let this woman die I will kill you myself.’ She passed through the gap in the stones. The vast damp darkness of Izhoria waited on all sides and only the torchlight provided any reprieve.

  ‘Did I just hear you threaten to kill a goddess?’ said Tief from behind her. Kimi looked over her shoulder. The man looked as if he’d been to Hel and back.

  ‘I thought you were asleep.’ Kimi cleared her throat, suddenly embarrassed. ‘Not one of the best prayers I’ve made.’

  ‘So you do pray then?’

  ‘I used to. A lot. Especially after my mother died.’ Kimi sighed. ‘But then my father gave me up to the Empire.’ The torch flame flickered and writhed, throwing shadows across her face. ‘And I prayed and begged that somehow Frøya would find a way to get me off Vladibogdan. All those prayers went unanswered. So I stopped praying and I stopped paying my respects and got on with the business of staying alive.’

  Tief lit his pipe and stared into the night for a moment. ‘Maybe Frøya did answer your prayers.’

  ‘Really?’ Kimi gave an incredulous smile.

  ‘Maybe Frøya sent Steiner to help us escape the island.’

  ‘I’m afraid I don’t share your gift for religious interpretation,’ said Kimi with a tired smile. ‘Besides, Steiner was five years late. I wouldn’t let my followers suffer like that if I was a goddess.’

  ‘That’s good to know,’ said Tief. ‘Maybe I’ll start worshipping you.’ Kimi almost laughed and for a moment they stood in the peaceful quiet of the night, warm under their heavy cloaks.

  ‘Do you think we’re going to make it?’ said Tief, toking on his pipe. ‘Across Izhoria, I mean. Will we get through?’

  ‘How is she?’ said Kimi, nodding to Taiga, keen to change the su
bject.

  ‘I’m not sure. Out of the three of us it was Taiga that always had the gift for healing. Sundra, well, Sundra is Sundra, and I’ve always been the practical one.’

  ‘You mean fighting?’

  ‘I mean fighting, fetching, carrying. You name it, these old bones have done it.’ Tief paused and struggled to hold back his tears. ‘Why in Frøya’s name did I never learn medicine? All those years and I left it to Taiga, depended on Taiga. I used to think it was women’s work. Now she’s depending on me and there’s not one damn thing I can do.’ Kimi put an arm around the man and held him close. ‘I was supposed to be looking out for her. That’s what brothers do, isn’t it?’

  ‘Not all of them,’ said Kimi, thinking of Tsen before her thoughts turned to Steiner and the lengths he’d gone to in order to protect Kjellrunn. ‘All we can do is look out for each other,’ she said.

  Morning came to Izhoria and glorious sunlight scoured the mist off the swamps. The waters, so full of silt and mud and gods knew what else, were bright and clear. The many mangy reeds and yellowing grasses looked healthier somehow. Of the black-cowled gholes there was no sign. It was as if the unholy creatures had vanished with the mist.

  ‘She’s worse,’ said Tief. He was kneeling beside his sister, fists balled, brow heavy. ‘Can you hear that? She’s wheezing. I don’t know if the damp’s got into her or if it’s an infection. It could be poison. Frejna’s teeth! I don’t know anything.’

  Taiga was shockingly pale. She had barely moved at all in the night and Kimi wondered how much time the woman had left.

  ‘We stay here,’ said Kimi, forcing her feelings down, struggling to think. ‘Marozvolk will forage for anything useful, food, wood, anything at all. I’ll keep watch.’

  ‘I’m not just going to sit here and watch my sister die,’ said Tief, brandishing a small green book. ‘There are herbs mentioned in here. I’m going to search for them. If it is an infection then …’

  ‘Do it,’ said Kimi, knowing he needed to keep himself occupied.