by Amanda Sun
I can’t keep my voice down. “What? That’s absurd!”
Elisha nods. “The Sargon used the news to stir up more unrest in Burumu. It was propaganda against the Monarch, that he had found a way to break the engagement and keep control of Ashra and her lands by assassinating Jonash. That you fell was a tragic mistake. The lieutenant, who had failed to protect you, resigned, and then he disappeared. Jonash became the leader of the Elite Guard. None of it sounded right to me. I started to look into what you’d been talking about that night, about the meeting with Aban and the lieutenant. And my search led me here to Burumu. I’ve been staying with my uncle and trying to piece together the truth. And then I found Aksel and the rebels.”
I’ve returned to a complete political mess, and the prospect of war is closer than we’d thought. Aksel returns from the back room without Griffin and sits at the table with us.
“I imagine your friend has been filling you in,” he says. “What I believe happened to you is that you uncovered a truth the Elite Guard didn’t want you to know, and that is why Jonash pushed you.”
“Pushed me?” I shake my head, remembering that night. “No. He was walking too close to the edge. He’d only just learned to see the crystal edge of the rock bed, and he was dangerously close. But my weight threw us off balance, and then...”
“Kallima,” Aksel says, putting his hands on the table as he leans in. “Jonash is the son of the Sargon. And Burumu was fractured from the side of Ashra three hundred years ago. Do you not think we have the same glittering crystal edge around our continent that our prince can easily recognize?”
My face crumples in confusion. “I don’t understand.”
“You were set up. Jonash meant for you to fall.”
My heart races. I think of how pathetic his attempts were to save me that night, threading my hands through the useless tufts of grass. I remember him falling belly-down to save himself at my expense. And I remember Jonash’s face as he ordered the airship to fire. Did he... Did he really intend to throw me off the continent? Did he intend for me to die?
Elisha’s gentle hand presses against my back. “The Elite Guard have strict orders to get rid of anyone who finds out the truth about Operation Phoenix or the Benu. We think Jonash panicked. He had his orders, but he didn’t know if they applied to his fiancée. I think that’s why he was trying to persuade you not to talk about what you’d seen. And when you were adamant...”
“But he doesn’t know about the barrier,” Aksel says. “He’s brainless, that boy. He only acts to please his father, the Sargon. And the Sargon wants to control the lands of Ashra, if not by his son’s marriage, then by an uprising and civil war.” Tash and Griffin were right, then. That’s exactly what’s happening.
I can’t believe it. I was pushed. I was meant to die. And by the same man that I tried to respect and love, that Griffin and I held back for because we felt such guilt and remorse.
“These secrets only have power in the dark,” Elisha says. “If everyone knows about the Benu and the genocide that occurred, then we don’t have to fear anymore. The Phoenix has listened to our prayers for three hundred years. Even if the Benu are half monster, why should we fear them?”
“The Sargon is the real enemy here,” Aksel says. “He’s using the rebels and the Monarch against each other. The rebels are a decoy to keep the Monarch distracted and to provoke him to war. Between new recruits and reinstated members, the Elite Guard has doubled in size this past month. Grief has pushed the Monarch past reasonable reaction.”
“I have to get to my father, then, and warn him not to bite,” I say. “The Elite Guard’s loyalty should be to him, not to the Sargon. If they see I’m alive...”
Aksel nods. “This was our hope,” he says, “but we had no way to be sure we’d find you, or that you’d survived. But now you’re here, we can stop all this.”
Another rebel puts a plate of honeyed chicken in front of us as I nod my gratitude.
“There’s an airship for Ashra in the morning,” Elisha says. “I’ll take you back with me.”
“Won’t I be recognized?”
“We’ll do our best,” she says. “Just wear that cloak and look down.”
“Everyone thinks you’re dead,” Aksel says, “and people see what they want to see.” It’s true, I think. So many were witness to the massacre three hundred years ago, but they chose to look away. Taking over the continent saved the human race. They were willing to forget the dark price it cost, the blemish staining our history.
“Remember,” Aksel continues, “the Sargon is using the rebellion against the Monarch. We can’t be sure what you’ll find on Ashra, but you can be certain that your father is in danger.”
“Thank you for your help,” I tell him. “I will get there, and I will stop all of this.”
Aksel nods. “I’ll look into acquiring tickets for the airship,” he says, and excuses himself to talk to the others. I watch him leave, and then I catch Elisha staring at me.
“What?” I say, meeting her amused eyes.
“You’re different,” she says, resting her head on her hand, her elbow propped on the table. “You used to have this look in your eyes, like you were far away. Like you were dreaming. But now...you look like you’ve woken up.”
“I missed you,” I say, and I hug my dearest friend close.
After we eat I check on Griffin, but he’s fast asleep, his face pale. Elisha stands in the doorway with me, her eyes curious, but she doesn’t ask me. I tangle my fingers in the shell necklace, toying with the string as the circles clink against each other. She can tell from the way I look at him, I think. Nothing needs to be said—only that he saved me, from the earth’s surface and from myself.
Elisha slips back into the front room, and I go to lie down beside Griffin. Outside, a lady is setting a ladder against the lamppost and climbing up to light the wick. The sun is setting, and the world is fading behind the closed curtains of the house.
I tuck my head into the curve of Griffin’s neck and lace my fingers with his. He wakes slowly, and I lean back to look into his confused hazel eyes as he remembers where we are.
“Are you feeling better?” I ask quietly. He breathes slowly, his hand reaching to my cheek. His calloused fingertips are warm against my skin.
“I got you to the floating mountains,” he murmurs. “I kept my promise.”
“You did,” I smile, and then I press my lips against his, taking back the moment stolen from us. It is everything I had hoped it would be—softness and tenderness and honeyed sweetness. It is flames curling on my skin and electricity sparking through my blood like the crystals of a storm dragonling.
I close my eyes, and we are in the house in the tree in the marshlands. We are in the cave on the summit of the mountains. We are deep beneath the earth in the dugout haven.
We are in each other’s arms, and promises have been kept.
Griffin has brought me home.
* * *
The crowds are thick to board the airship as I stare down at the sea of leggings and sandals and cloak hems. I pull my cloak tighter around me, praying to the Phoenix I won’t get caught. I know now she’s a myth, but I’ve believed in her my whole life, and so it feels natural to look to her for protection.
Elisha’s handed the guard our tickets and he’s looking them over. Immigration to Ashra is tight, and citizens of Burumu are often trying to smuggle people in. “Who did you say this was again?” he asks, thumbing toward Griffin.
“My cousin,” she says. “My uncle’s son. We need some extra help for the coming harvest. You can see I’ve already bought his return ticket.”
He flips through the documents, checking the details. “And her?”
I stare at the ground, saying nothing.
“My sister. She came with me to Burumu to fetch our cousin.�
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“What’s your name?” he says to me. I continue to look down, the blood racing through me like flame.
“She’s can’t speak, sir. She’s mute.”
“Hmm.”
“Will you hurry up the line?” a man shouts several people back. I recognize Aksel’s voice, and I know he’s trying to pressure the guard. “We’ve been waiting all morning!” he adds, and others in the line being to mutter, as well.
The guard flips through the documents, but you can tell he’s nervous about the long line and the delay it might cause to the departure of the airship. He glances at his superior, who is dozing off in a chair nearby. “These seem to be in order,” he finishes weakly and hands Elisha the papers.
We step on board the airship, taking seats near the back.
Griffin brushes his hand against my cloak, just for a moment, but the gesture gives me courage. He still looked a little pale this morning, but managed to eat the eggs and honeyed peaches on his breakfast plate.
The airship fills up, and before I know it, we are wobbling and puttering our way toward Ashra. Many of the passengers are members of the Elite Guard, easily recognized in their white uniforms and red-and-gold plume pins. I long to look out the window and see the mountain range as we float over it, but I don’t dare lift my head. There’s plenty of time to think on the journey, and I try to sort out everything that’s happened. The marriage to Jonash, which my father thought would strengthen the bond of the continents, was a ploy of the Sargon’s to take control of our lands. The whole rebellion has been cultivated by his lust for power. And the discussion between Aban and the lieutenant led Jonash to push me off the side of Ashra on purpose. He panicked, and then probably realized how stupid his decision had been. Maybe you could make an unknown in Burumu disappear without a trace, but a public figure? That wouldn’t go unnoticed. The Sargon, with no claim to the throne by marriage, built an army in the Elite Guard and would take our lands by force. Only my father stands in his way, and he thinks the real problem is the rebels.
It’s a complicated tangle, but I know how to unravel it. I’ll go to my father immediately and cut the knot through the middle, the rope pieces shriveling like Dream Catchers pierced by the truth. And the truth will shine like a basilisk scale, like the fiery surface of the ocean, reflecting everything in undeniable veracity.
The airship touches down on the landing pitch near the citadel, and my heart pounds with anticipation. We wait for the others to disembark while I stare out the back window at the familiar forests that border the citadel. I’m home, and it floods me with joy. I reach for Griffin’s hand and squeeze it as he stares out at the forests for the first time in fourteen years. This is his home, too. We’ve both returned.
Elisha pats my arm, and now it’s time for the three of us to descend the plank to the landing pitch. The shining blue crystal of the citadel refracts the afternoon sun into dancing patterns on the ground. We walk through them, the blue striping across our toes and ankles. The Phoenix’s colors are red and orange, and I always wondered why the citadel’s crowning crystal was blue. I asked my father once. He told me the hottest fire, the deepest part of the blaze, is not orange or red, but blue. It looks cool and calm, but it carries in it the strength of the strongest spark.
I walk toward the citadel with this memory in my heart.
I will not be the wick and the wax any longer. I will be the flame, and I will light a new world for us all.
TWENTY-TWO
AS WE ROUND the landing pitch, we stumble upon a strange gathering in the courtyard of the citadel. It’s like I’ve gone back in time to the Rending Ceremony. Some of the banners and garlands are still strung across the courtyard, although the flowers on them are wilted and collapsed. It’s like a forgotten birthday party, the decorations collecting dust, the cake gathering mold. “It’s because you fell,” Elisha whispers to me as we duck under the faded bunting. “All the efforts went into finding you, and then the threats and blame started.” She looks at the faces of the crowds as we push our way through.
“They look possessed,” Griffin murmurs beside me. “Like they’re in a Dream Catcher’s vision.”
“Dream Catcher?” Elisha asks. It brings the memory flooding back of the dream the monster put in my own head. The Rending Ceremony, with red petals falling like blood. With the dying garlands and the crowds, the shriveled petals strewn across the ground, it’s almost like a prophecy now, like the monster knew what would happen. I’ll have to ask Griffin later if it’s possible. I don’t know enough about any of the monsters on the earth yet. I want to know everything he does.
I’m trying not to look anyone in the face. It’s hard to know who my allies are and who my enemies. I feel like I’m on the plains in my karu fur, hiding from hazu birds, trying to blend in as something I’m not. My karu cloak, back in the village, is the color of the pack leader. I’m not a youth hiding in the forest anymore, but the one leading the hunt.
On the plains, I was a scared human hiding in a monster’s fur. Now I’m a force of reckoning hiding in a peasant’s cloak, trying to look feeble. I will not let the Sargon and his son manipulate our futures.
We push through the crowd toward the sound of a voice. The gathering is thick with villagers from Ulan, and at the front a circle of Elite Guard soldiers keeps them back from the courtyard. Griffin gently bumps into me as I look over the shoulders of the guards. It’s a familiar sight, only now I’m on the outside.
Elder Aban is standing in his white-and-red robes, his hands clasped and his face grim. He’s droning on with some sort of invocation of the Phoenix, one of the many I’ve heard thousands of times before. Everyone stands solemnly, and I think about how none of them know what really happened, how we’ve all blindly accepted what we think our history is.
Then the crowds erupt around me as the doors to the citadel creak inward. The trumpets blare and my heart stumbles over itself. He’s there—my father, the Monarch. He’s wearing his circlet of golden plumes that clinks and jingles as he walks. His golden cloak adorns his hunched shoulders, the red-plumed hem sweeping against the steps. His face looks weathered and older than it was a few weeks ago, and I unconsciously press against the guards in front of me as I strain forward. They push me back just as Griffin and Elisha each take my arms.
“I know how you must feel,” Elisha says quietly. “But we have no idea how this crowd will react to the news that you’ve survived.”
“They could riot or panic,” Griffin says. “Better to approach your father quietly after.”
I hate that they’re right, and the chance of a riot seems so small. But I listen, if only because I’m in shock at being back here in the courtyard of the citadel, with my father, Elisha and Griffin.
And then another figure steps out of the doorway to the citadel and down the long stone steps. He’s dressed in the white uniform of the Elite Guard, the golden plume of leadership pinned to his lapel. Around his head he wears a circlet of etched golden feathers, the mark of the Phoenix’s royal favor.
My blood runs cold. It’s Jonash.
He stands beside my father. The one who pushed me off the edge, if I believe Aksel. And as I stare at my once fiancé, I do believe him. I believe with all my heart that he knew about the crystal edge of the outlands, and that he walked along it to stage the accident.
The crowds fall silent as my father stretches out his hands, but it is Jonash who speaks. “To our family in Ashra, visitors of Burumu, and kin of Nartu and the Floating Isles,” he says. “Thank you for gathering this day. Many of you have heard rumors and have troubled hearts. We are here to put those rumors to rest, so that you can all know the truth of what is happening.”
The truth that you pushed me? I think. The truth that you and your father have stirred up fear of the rebellion and the genocide to your advantage? But I feel Griffin’s fingers on my elbow, and I take
strength in him, waiting for the right moment to act.
“The truth is,” Jonash says, “that all our hearts are broken at the passing of my fiancée, our beloved Monarch’s only child. She was the Eternal Flame of Hope, the heir of the floating continents, adored by us all. She would’ve been our queen. My queen. And my heart breaks that her life was taken from us by the lies of the rebels that seduced her.”
“That dirty cinder,” Elisha says beside me. I can think of stronger words, ones I learned from Griffin on the mountain when the basilisk meat burned. Those words bounce off the walls of my mind as I force myself to stay quiet.
“Many of you have heard that she fell from the outlands while trying to throw me off of Ashra.” He pauses, scanning the crowd. “This is true. But I do not blame her. The rebels twisted her understanding with their lies. And now they hope to twist the rest of you to their side, as well.”
It’s ridiculous, yet the people hang on his every word. My father merely hunches like an old man. Why is he letting Jonash go on and on like this? He must know it’s utter nonsense. He must think more of me than this.
Jonash makes a fist. “But my father and I are loyal to the Monarch, and united, we can stand against this rebellion!”
Some of the crowd cheers, but most still look confused.
Elder Aban steps forward, raising his hands for the crowds to silence. “It is true, my dear ones,” he says, “that there is an abomination in our midst. And we have been protecting you all as part of our duty to the Monarch for the last three hundred years. There were those perverse souls who joined with the monsters and longed for humanity’s destruction. They were called the Benu. And the Elite Guard and our brothers and sisters, the Elders, have both protected society for as long as we could in our own ways. But now we have joined together, for the abomination has grown, and like weeds, must be cut down for the health of the crop.”
I can’t stand to hear any more. I lurch forward, but Elisha and Griffin pull me back. “Let me go,” I say, and press forward again, but they pull me back and I lose my balance. I bump against one of the guards, and he turns to see who’s causing trouble.