Dawn of Ash

by Rebecca Ethington

  He nodded at my question, one eyebrow disappearing into his curls quizzically.

  I sighed, his look and question obvious.

  “Yes, I saw something, and yes, everything will be okay for you. I’m not telling you any more than that.”

  “And?”

  “And you’re happy. I’m not telling you any more than that,” I repeated through the clench of my jaw. He obviously thought more highly of his skill to get stuff out of me than I did.

  “Yeah, yeah,” he said, the hint of a smile beginning to form. “You really aren’t going to tell me more than that?”

  I glared at him, my lips pursed angrily as he laughed. He was obviously trying to put on the charm, something that I would have melted under a little more than a year ago. Not so much anymore. I was too stubborn, and he knew it.

  “No, I’m not telling you any more than that.” I half expected him to laugh, but instead, the smug smile of his game slipped off his face, disappointment taking over.

  “That’s no fair, Jos.”

  “Ha! Life is a journey meant to be experienced, Ry. What’s the fun if I tell you all the stops along the way?”

  “I would know where I am going … I wouldn’t run into quite so many walls at the very least,” Ryland said, the teenage irritation dripping off him.

  It was all I could do to keep the smile off my face, although the attempt to keep the stoic, wise grimace wasn’t going too well, either. “That can’t be good for your complexion, or your nose, for that matter.”

  “Thanks, Jos,” he grumbled, the angst dripping off him and infecting me. “And stop being all wise and philosophical and stuff. It’s weird.”

  “You’re weird.” I looked away from him, trying to ignore the twist in my stomach at how quickly we had fallen back into our familiar banter after everything we had been through.

  We sat, listening to the whispers of the people below us, watching the line of the red sun slowly move over the city as it disappeared past the horizon.

  “You were on a beach,” I whispered after a few minutes. His eyes widened as he moved to face me, obviously eager to absorb anything I would give him. “There were other people involved you may … or may not be related to. It was a happy scene, Ry.”

  “Happy.” The one word leaked out of him with so much emotion I was surprised it didn’t stick in the air and linger around us like a dozen balloons.

  “Very. Just don’t go thinking I’m infallible, okay? I’m kind of done with that lie being spread around.”

  “You really aren’t going to give me more than that, are you?” he teased.

  I shook my head, a smile spreading over my face. “Trust me. It will be better this way, but that fear you feel, that desperation for normality…” He nodded. “Everyone has it, Ry. Just know it doesn’t last forever. Not for any of us. It may take a bit, but everything will come out all right.”

  I had barely said the words when the violent image of Ilyan’s death flooded my vision, overlaying the city roof-scape with the steady flow of Ilyan’s blood. I cringed against it, my heart rate picking up to a dangerous level as the fear overtook me, my own unwillingness to accept what I was seeing erupting through me.

  “Everything will come out all right,” I said again, part of me hoping—no, willing them to be true.

  I shifted my body forward in an attempt to seek out Ilyan, as if seeing him would set everything right in my mind, confirm the good that I, too, was desperate for. My magic moved away from me to find him, but instead of streaming to the courtyard, I was pulled in a different direction.

  My mind and magic drifted over the city, winding through the streets as my heart rate increased, dread filling me as the shadow of what I was certain I wouldn’t feel again drifted over me.

  My mind filled with the images of the dilapidated city, the streets shrouded in the black of night, the ancient beauty of it turned into a dangerous labyrinth I had no interest in entering. That was, until the shadow of magic I was feeling sparked through me, everything tensing as the image of a single, cloaked figure moved through the dark, running from street to street as it had the last time I had felt its magic.

  “It’s the same.” My voice was a hollow monotone as it rumbled through the dusk, the magic winding through me with a deep mockery as every muscle tensed through me.

  He was here.

  After what he had done, after what people had seen him do, he had come back.

  “What’s the same?” Ryland asked from beside me.

  My focus was so intent on what had unfolded I didn’t even answer him.

  “Ilyan,” I said aloud, fully aware Ryland could hear me. “Sain is in the city. I can feel him on the other side of the river—”

  Sain! Ilyan’s voice erupted loudly, his body running into the center of the courtyard as he looked up to me. Why would he come back?

  He asked the question, although the answer was so clear I almost hated having to say it. Sain had been doing much more than spreading rumors; I was confident of that. And if you took the time to play a game, you didn’t walk back into your enemy’s territory without a motive.

  “It’s a trap.”

  There was no doubt. However, we couldn’t let him get away, either. I had no question that he was very aware of that. It was a game of the worst sort, but at least we weren’t going into it unaware. If we played our cards right, we could have the upper hand.

  How many does he have? Can you tell what he’s planning?

  “I’ll find out. You get a team together. As many as you can.” I looked at Ilyan as his mind followed mine. His eyes were hard, his jaw straight as he nodded in confirmation.

  “Can I be part of this conversation, too?” Ryland groaned from beside me, his weight shifting as he moved to stand. “I’m Ilyan’s second. Doesn’t that count for something?”

  “Stop being a baby,” I growled, not even paying him attention as I closed my eyes, focusing my magic on what I assumed was Sain running through the streets and moving out from there. I scoured everything as I looked for any other trace of magic, for anything that would tip me off to what he was planning.

  “I hate that you guys do that.” I wasn’t certain if Ryland was laughing or growling. His voice was too distorted from where my mind was focused on the city and any tips as to what was about to happen. There was nothing. I moved through every street in the city, every building, but it was empty except for the Vilỳs that lay in hiding.

  “There’s nothing.” My voice was dead, the shock still rumbling through me uncomfortably.

  I wasn’t certain how that was possible. Why would he come back if not for a trap?

  Nothing anywhere?

  I didn’t blame Ilyan for questioning.

  “No, I can’t find anything. That doesn’t mean he isn’t up to something, though. It’s up to you if we want to go in blind or not.”

  I looked to Ryland then, who was now so irate at being left out of the conversation I half expected steam to start issuing from his ears.

  “Care to fill me in?” he snarled from behind clenched teeth, obviously trying his hardest to stay cool and fit for the role he currently held.

  “Sain is in the city,” I said, surprised he hadn’t caught on to at least that much. “He’s alone.”

  Even Ryland didn’t seem to believe that little bit of information judging by the way his eyes narrowed.

  “Why would he come back?”

  “Exactly,” I said, a finger wagging at him as he stepped back in obvious discomfort. “I say we go and leave the team on ready in case we need them.”

  Ryland looked at me with even more confusion than before, clearly trying to follow along. “Go where?”

  I guessed I probably should have mentioned that last part wasn’t for him.

  Sounds good. I’ll meet you in the dark.

  Ilyan’s voice faded, the directions clear, as I turned toward Ryland, his eyes now so wide, his temper so high I had a feeling trying to explain anything was going
to be a fool’s errand.

  Ask questions and seek apologies later, I supposed.

  “I’m really sorry for what’s about to happen,” I whispered, my hand gripping tightly around his waist as my magic plunged into him, the energy flaring as I pulled him into the stutter with me, his scream loud in my ears.

  “Never do that again!” Ryland’s voice echoed around us the moment we reemerged on a dingy street in Old Town, his body collapsing against the wall that hadn’t been there a moment ago.

  Crinkling my nose against the smell of a million dying fish, I shot Ryland a look. The poor boy heaved as he clung to the wall beside him. Obviously stutters did not agree with him. It’s not like I was much better after my first, but then, Ilyan had knocked himself unconscious for several days, so at least I had that going for me. I wasn’t even sure why I had thought I could drag him through in the first place. I was beginning to wonder exactly how much power I had regained from Sain’s control. My magic kept surprising me, the power I felt daunting at times.

  “Try to keep it down,” I hissed as I glared through the dark, my magic aching in fearful anticipation of what was coming.

  “You say that like you didn’t try to kill me.”

  I rolled my eyes at him before I walked away, the sounds of his gasping lessening with each step I took.

  My magic moved in a rush as I pushed it through the streets, attempting to find where Sain had gone, but there was nothing: no trace of his magic, no image of a cloaked figure running through the dark. It was no more than a dark world, ribbons of deep red seeping through the gaps in the buildings as the sun set, a deep pitch plunging the shadowed world into a nonexistent realm.

  Ilyan? I called to him, my breathing picking up alongside my anxiety. Where are you?

  A few streets over. The reply came automatically, and my magic pulled right to him. I wished knowing where he was helped calm my anxiety. I could feel Ilyan there, Ryland behind me, but other than that …

  Nothing, Ilyan clarified, his magic pulling together with mine as I searched.

  It’s too quiet. My voice was clipped, the tense agitation matching the heavy weight that collapsed against my chest, the heavy beat of my heart loud in my ears.

  I took another step closer to the end of the street, the wide intersection seeming too perfect for the situation we were up against. My heart throbbed in my chest, almost expecting to find someone hidden around the corner, waiting to attack.

  Closing my eyes, I pressed my back against the bricks of the building, trying to regulate my breathing into something more manageable before letting my magic pull away from me again.

  With a slow exhale, my mind’s eye opened to the streets that surrounded us, pulling through the empty ruins as I searched, knowing he should be close.

  Still, nothing.

  I gasped aloud, hating how high the anxiety around me had built.

  Turning back to the dark shadows of the street behind me, I watched Ilyan jump from the rooftops to land before me, his arms open wide. The look on his face made it obvious he knew what I was feeling, and he had felt it, too.

  I let him enfold me in his arms, his magic plunging into me as I listened to the steady strum of his heart. Though he was as concerned as I was, he was calming me down a bit. My heart rate was already slowing to something that could possibly be considered normal.

  “ ‘Kay, I think I survived that…” Ryland gasped as he came up behind us, his body still visibly shaking, even though he was trying to act all macho. “But never again, Jos. I’m still not completely convinced I haven’t died.”

  “Ryland?” Ilyan asked, his back tensing a bit underneath me. “How did you get here?”

  “Jos brought me. Didn’t she tell you through her wicked mumbo-jumbo telecommunications radio thing you have going on?” I wasn’t convinced his brain was screwed on all the way. That made no sense.

  “No, she didn’t.” I would have expected the tension in Ilyan’s back to lessen, but it stayed. His eyes were wide as he looked down at me, the tempo of his heart wrapping around me. “And you didn’t pass out for days. I guess I did choose wisely.” He spoke in deep Czech, his voice rumbling over me deeply, and I melted a bit, right there in his arms, collapsing against him as I smiled like a loon, my lips seeking his out automatically.

  “I love you,” I sighed against the tender skin, and his reply echoed right back to me.

  I kissed him deeply, moaning a bit when he pulled me into him. Part of me knew I should pull a way, at least before the crazy lights showed up.

  “ ‘Kay,” Ryland snarled, disgust evident in his voice. “If you are going to drag me along, can you at least keep this down to a minimum?”

  “Oh, I quite agree,” another voice broke through the darkness around us, a snake that wound through my spine and froze me in place. The tones of the voice were unfamiliar and foreign, yet I knew who it was.

  I knew before he stepped out of the shadows, the hood low over his face. I knew before he smiled at us, the wide grin cutting through his face differently than I had ever seen.

  I could see him there, yet his magic was gone. I could feel nothing, as though a mortal walked toward us, although I knew that was not the case.

  Ryland stiffened as he turned, and Ilyan’s arms tightened protectively as his magic flared, his nerves moving into high alert. Still, the cloaked man stepped forward, straighter and taller than I had ever seen him.

  “Sain,” I whispered through clenched teeth as he removed the hood, his smile spreading while eyes as black as the night looked into us, the color fading back to their normal green with one blink.

  “Oh, come now,” he cooed, his voice as unrecognizable as the person before us was, and judging by the anguished tension that had wound through Ilyan, it was unfamiliar for him, too. “I think I deserve a more formal greeting than that.”

  “Deserve may be the wrong word there, Father.” I spat out the last word like it was poison, part of me expecting him to flinch or howl in anger. However, his smile deepened, his steps hollow as he continued forward, step after step grating against me.

  “Oh, no, child.” His voice was soothing in the dark. If the threat behind his words wasn’t so clear, I might have believed the lie he was trying to weave. “Deserve is exactly the right word because I deserve what is about to happen to me, just as you deserve what is about to happen to you. I have been working toward this since before any of you were born. It’s fitting that you be here to see it to its end.”

  “What have you done, Sain?” Ilyan’s chest rumbled beneath me as he spoke, the feral snarl erupting through the dark street like a drum. Sain, however, took one more step toward us, obviously unfazed by Ilyan’s questioning and the many different meanings it held, none of which were lost on any of us.

  “Done?” Sain asked with a laugh.

  Ryland slowly stepped back, away from the man and closer to where Ilyan and I stood. His back was tense as his magic flared.

  “I have done nothing. I was not the one to kill your mother. I was not the one to start this war. I have merely given—eh—helpful guidance along the way.” He flipped his hand to the side as he spoke, the movement so casual you would assume he was discussing anything other than the orchestrated destruction of an entire race of people.

  My blood boiled with every word he spoke as I looked into the reality of what—no, of whom—we were truly facing. “It’s all a game to you.”

  “Oh, yes.” The slime of his voice dripped off the wall, and I cringed. “One of the best sort. And you all have been playing without even knowing.”

  “You’ve used everyone. You used me…” Ryland growled, his feet shifting as if he was debating whether or not to attack Sain right away. I didn’t blame him. It would have been a foolish move, something Ryland seemed to pick up on.

  “Used is a harsh word, Ryland. I used no one. I only helped them see their true potential, helped them understand what they were really meant for, even if they didn’t see it themselv
es.”

  The true reality of what he had done became frighteningly clear. This was more than spreading rumors about my magic. This was more than controlling the Draks. I could tell by looking at him, looking at this stranger, that his motives went deeper than the prideful games we had assumed them to be.

  “Well”—Sain’s eyes narrowed as he took yet another step forward—”I guess I have done something.” His smiled stretched wide again as he froze before us, unwilling to look away while his magic slowly started to awaken from within him, the same powerful strain I had felt running through the city before emanating from him like a poisonous fog, sticking heavily in the air as though it was attempting to strangle us. His smile rose as his magic did, the darkened street behind him illuminating as the forgotten streetlights blazed to life. His magic infected them as he ignited them, blanketing us in a flickering yellow bath.

  Our shadows stretched and swayed over the blood soaked street as the lights continued to flare, swallowing the dark until it showed us what he wanted us to see.

  Until it showed us what he had “done.”

  A pile of lifeless corpses, their clothes covered with wet blood, their faces gaunt as they stared at nothing. Their hands were posed as if they were still trying to attack whatever had destroyed them, as if the magic inside of them was still trying to get out, still trying to save them.

  But there was nothing except death.

  “I did this.” His voice was light, proud, joyful of the handiwork he had accomplished, as if the life he had destroyed was more beautiful than the life that had been. I didn’t even care if they were Edmund’s men; it still made my stomach turn. “Edmund sent me with ‘fifty of his strongest’ on a mission to kill you. I made him believe I could use my sight to sneak them into the cathedral to draw you out, something that was obviously not too hard. However, I didn’t need them to complete my task. But Edmund needn’t know that.” He smiled, the grin infecting me like poison, sending my insides spinning in varying levels of disgust and anger. It was all I could do to keep my temper at bay. Unfortunately, I wasn’t the one I should have worried about.