Burn

by Keri Arthur

  Harrod handed me a couple of clips. “I’ll tell Kaiden what’s happening, and we’ll keep them off you the best we can. Good luck.”

  I took a deep breath, gathering courage and strength, and then thrust up and ran. A tide of earth and stone rose and raced beside me, shielding me from the barrage of bullets instantly aimed my way. Metal thudded into the earth and drew sparks from stone inches above my head, but none hit me, thanks to that wall. I shoved a new clip into the rifle, leaped over some rubble, and spotted movement to my right. A soldier appeared, his face masked against the cold but his eyes gleaming with fury. I raised the rifle, but before I could shoot, he went down, the back of his head disintegrating in a spray of blood and bone. I leaped over his body, my eyes on the hole in the wall. I was close, so close.

  Another two Mareritt appeared. The chest of one exploded outward, and he went down hard, a shocked gurgle on his dying lips. I shot the other, but his momentum was enough that he stumbled into me and slammed my bad shoulder into the wall. A scream tore up my throat, and pain became a red tide that threatened to overwhelm. I sucked in air, pushed him off, and stumbled on.

  More soldiers appeared. The liquid wall took care of them, hitting them, forcing them down, smothering them.

  I reached the cavern wall and slid to a halt, shoving the rifle into the hole before looking through the sight. Three mages stood directly in front of me not twenty feet away. Another two were slightly to my left. Each group had their hands linked and their eyes closed. The rhythmic sound of their voices sharped dramatically, and ice sheeted the wall in front of me and ran over the rifle’s stock.

  Time had just about run out.

  I aimed and fired, taking out the set of two before the other three even registered something was wrong. As the dead dropped to the ground, I took out a third mage. The thick waves of energy fell away, and fire surged across my flesh, melting the ice from my clothes and the nearby walls. One of the remaining mages barked an order and then the two of them retreated. Soldiers appeared from the rear of the chamber and raced toward the archway. I took several more shots, saw one of the mages stumble and fall. Heard a metallic groan and knew the archway gates had just been activated.

  “Harrod!” Kaiden said.

  My protective wall melted away as Harrod moved his focus to the archway gates. I pulled the rifle out of the gap and flung fire, setting the nearest soldiers alight even as I speared flames at the retreating mages.

  “Nara, watch out!”

  Kaiden’s cry had me spinning around. Five soldiers charged me. I dropped low, bullets smashing all around me, and again unleashed my fire—it was a wall of furious heat that cindered the soldiers in an instant and then raced on, through the doors, into the chamber. There were few screams; they simply didn’t have the chance.

  Blood dripped over my lashes. I brushed it away with the heel of my hand and then thrust up and raced toward the metal doors. Harrod had to be nearing the end of his strength, because the earth was struggling to hold them apart. I raced into the room, quickly looked around for some kind of control panel, and spotted it to the left. After scanning the multitude of switches, I found what looked to be the right one and hit it. The doors ground to a halt and then began to reverse.

  The earth fell silent. I swung around and studied the chamber, looking for the three ice weapons. They weren’t exactly hard to find, given they dominated the right side of the room. But there were also two more under development, and that was more than enough firepower to destroy a good portion of Esan’s wall.

  Kaiden appeared. “No matter what happens from this point on, we’ve at least achieved what we set out to do. Keep watch. I’ll set the explosives.”

  “What about Loretta?”

  “Harrod’s digging her out.”

  “She’s alive?”

  “Yes.”

  Relief swept through me, even though her life—and ours—was still very much on the line. I reloaded the rifle and moved across to check the dead were indeed dead. “Two of the mages escaped. I daresay we’ll have more company soon.”

  “And sooner than you might think.” Harrod appeared in the doorway, Loretta slung over his shoulder. She wasn’t conscious and had a deep cut across the back of her head. Despite the blood matting her hair and soaking her coat, the wound no longer bled. Harrod had obviously sealed it before he’d picked her up.

  “There’s at least two dozen Mareritt in the tunnel,” he continued, “and they’re bringing in heavy machinery. We’ve probably got ten minutes, if that, before they punch a hole through the rockslide.”

  “Head up the stairs,” Kaiden said. “I’ll follow once I’ve set all the explosives.”

  His gaze briefly met mine, his blue eyes bright. We might be trapped between mages and soldiers, we might be bloody and nigh on broken, but he was very determined that we’d damn well survive.

  We had to. There was still too much we needed to do and far too much we needed to explore.

  I ran across to the stairwell. The stone steps were deep, built for feet far bigger than mine. Another remnant of that old civilization, I suspected. No sound drifted down from above, but I had no doubt the mages were up there somewhere. I just had to hope they were the ice mages rather than the ones who could restrict my fires.

  I climbed, keeping my back to the outer wall and my rifle pointed upward. Far above, light flickered, though I wasn’t sure if it was artificial or not.

  Harrod followed me, his expression grim and skin ashen. “You need to go faster than that, lass. They’re almost through the slide.”

  Fear leapt past wariness and pain, but this time, there was no accompanying surge of energy. I nevertheless pushed on up the steps to the next landing, raced around it, and continued on. Harrod was five steps behind, his breathing harsh and the scent of his sweat stinging the cool air. Loretta remained limp and unconscious over his shoulder.

  From lower down the stairwell came the sound of echoing footsteps. Kaiden, I knew without looking back.

  The light high above us grew closer, brighter. Moonlight, I realized. This stairwell led back outside.

  And once we were there, the drakkons could help us.

  Even as hope surged, the guttural sound of a Mareritt shouting orders rolled up the stairwell. They were now in pursuit.

  But what about the explosives? Had they found and deactivated them? Was that why they hadn’t yet gone off?

  Even as I thought that, the explosives detonated, one after another. Dust and debris funneled up the stairs as the screams began. Then, over the top of all that, came a rumble—a deep, ominous sound that echoed through the walls and the floor, growing in intensity even as thick cracks speared across the ceiling.

  “The chamber and stairs are collapsing,” Harrod shouted. “Move it!”

  I dredged up strength from who knew where and pounded up the stairs as fast as my aching legs would allow. Up and up we went, but the moonlight and the freedom it offered were getting no closer. But the surviving Mareritt and that ominous rumbling certainly were.

  Gunshots rang out, and I instinctively ducked. Bullets burned past the top of my head and thudded into the nearby wall. I swore and spun around, pushing back to allow Harrod past and then flinging fire over the top of Kaiden, directing it down the stairwell. The screaming began and the stretch of burning flesh rolled back up.

  “Move, move.” Kaiden pressed his hand against my back and pushed me upward.

  We sprinted after Harrod and the distant promise of freedom. The rumbling grew louder; dust and stones fell all around us, cutting visibility and making every step treacherous.

  We hit a landing that was longer than the others. I raced toward the next set of stairs. Heard Kaiden swear, slide to a stop, and fire his weapon. Saw, out of the corner of my eye, movement to my right. Even as I called to my fire, something hit me side-on and sent me tumbling. I had a brief glimpse of icy skin and blue-white hair before the soldier’s weight hit me again, pinning me, his hands around my nec
k and his body like ice. Ice that poured from his fingers into my skin.

  Mage, not soldier.

  Fire surged in response, erupting across my entire body, burning my clothes as they burned into him. As his ash fell around me, I rolled to one side and pushed onto my hands and knees—where I remained, sucking in air in an attempt to find the strength to rise. I had to rise. The stairwell’s shuddering was now so violent the ground buckled, and the roar of imminent collapse was too damn close. But blood poured from my eye, and my head felt as if it was caught in a vise.

  Then a hand grabbed my good arm and hauled me upright. Kaiden. Still alive. Still fighting to survive.

  I could do no less.

  But my legs were like jelly, and every step brought me closer to collapse. I was running on empty—but at least I was still running.

  The exit had to be close—I could smell the night and the musk of drakkons—but the roar of disintegration was even closer.

  We weren’t going to make it...

  Harrod appeared above us, his face as pale as the moon behind him. He bent and pressed his hands against the ground. For a second, nothing happened; then the stairs stopped moving, the walls stopped shaking, and a path appeared through the thick sea of debris covering the steps. Kaiden grabbed my hand, hauling me up the remaining steps and then out onto a long, wide ledge. To our left was another set of stairs that ran down the side of the dome to the ground. We were free of the mountain but still deep in the heart of the White Zone and a long way from help...

  And then I heard it—a deep bugling cry that rang across the night. I looked up and saw the drakkons sweep in, their scales gleaming like bloody fire in the coldness of the moon’s light.

  I closed my eyes and felt tension leave me.

  Our transport out of here had arrived.

  We were finally safe.

  Epilogue

  I crossed my arms and leaned against the parapet. The vast old wall that guarded the entrance into Zephrine had once again survived the destruction that had befallen the rest of the city during the brutal six months that had followed our desperate attack on the ice weapons and our subsequent flight to safety.

  The Mareritt had not given up easily. They destroyed what they couldn’t hold, be it this fortress or cities such as Husk and Renton. They poisoned the fish farms and burned vast tracts of forests, even as their remaining mages attacked our forces with magic and ice.

  All that changed the night we took the fight to their doorstep. Not with fire and fury but with the earth itself. Four earth mages—strapped into specially designed harnesses, each one slung between two drakkons—were carried deep into enemy territory with me and Oma in the lead and Kiva on rear guard. We flew high, out of their sight, on a moonless night, until we reached the Laseeta Fault, an eight-hundred-mile crack that ran through Mareritten from north to south and took in a number of cities, including Orkadden and Frio—their main living hubs.

  Four mages weren’t enough to spark a major catastrophe along the fault, but they were still able to get a damn good shake happening. Buildings fell, and thousands were killed.

  It was a warning, and one the Mareritt heeded.

  A truce was called. Negotiations began. If Esan’s leaders had learned anything during the bitter years since the destruction of my Zephrine, it was the fact that occupation was never a guarantee of peace.

  A trade deal might not be either, but it was at least a start.

  And anything was better than war. There’d been too much destruction, and too many people had died, both in this time and in mine. There had to be a better way.

  A gentle breeze rifled through my hair—hair that was once again blue-white rather than stained black. But bits of ice remained in my brain, as did the mottling on my body. I’d accepted both now—not only because there was little point worrying about what I couldn’t change, but also because my mottling had gone a long way to changing entrenched opinions and given true half-breeds some hope that eventually they would be truly accepted.

  The thick scent of drakkon teased my nostrils, and I looked up. Oma swooped in, her wings gleaming gold and her scales fiery red against the bright blue skies. She flew over the top of me, then dropped low and landed on the wall. Once she’d tucked her wings in, she sidled closer and snaked her head toward me. I smiled and rubbed her eye ridge.

  I’d never forget Emri and all she’d meant to me, but Oma and Kiva were now lodged deep in my psyche. They’d healed me—made me closer to whole than I ever thought possible. We were three rather than two, and forever connected via that indefinable and yet indestructible link that bound kin to drakkon.

  Mareritt come, she said after a few minutes.

  “Yes.” My gaze returned to the far end of the pass. Dust rose as five open-top vehicles approached—the Mareritt officials who’d sign off on the trade agreement and hopefully start a new era of Arleeon and Mareritten cooperation.

  Should burn, Kiva grumbled. No like this not attack business.

  I glanced up again. She was sitting on a ledge halfway up the mountain, her tail flicking from side to side. Every part of her body exuded discontent.

  We lost three drakkons in the war, remember. Peace is better.

  Peace is boring.

  I grinned. You can hunt—there’s plenty of capras in the mountains.

  Capras not as much fun to chase as Mareritt.

  There was that.

  Below me, the gates opened and five Arleeon vehicles pulled out to meet the Mareritt party. While truce and trade terms might have been agreed, Esan’s leaders were taking no chances. All negotiations had happened in the no-man’s-land of this pass. Esan remained out of bounds, both Break Point and Black Water passes were under Arleeon control, and Zephrine, once it was rebuilt, would become the main trading center. I had mixed feelings about that. While it did make sense, my entire family—everyone I’d known and everyone I hadn’t—had lost their lives defending this place in an effort to keep the Mareritt out. And now, thanks to the impending agreement, we were flinging the gates open and inviting them in.

  A new nursery had been established deep in the Red Ochre Mountains, in an area high in the peaks that had been renamed Sorrel’s Point in honor of my sister and all those who’d followed her into the trap—a trap I may or may not have sprung.

  The location was so remote—and so deep within Arleeon’s heart—that no future warmongering Mareritt intent on wreaking havoc would ever get near it. And that was just as well—the Mareritt might have handed over their remaining stock in the last couple of weeks, but overall, drakkon numbers remained dangerously low.

  Some of the drakkons we’d released had found their bond mates—in fact, one of Kaiden’s sisters had been chosen by Ineke. Others remained bondless, but I had no doubt that would change as the drakkons grew used to being free once more. It was my job to reestablish training facilities and teach both kin and drakkon the ins and outs of flying and fighting as one.

  Esan’s leaders had also reached out to those in charge of Gallion—a distant land we’d once held strong trade ties with—and offered land and subsidies to any air or earth mages who’d settle here and help us rebuild. The response had been overwhelming, and I rather suspected the drakkons had a lot to do with that. Gallion’s drakkons had died out so long ago that they were little more than a myth to most of the population there.

  The two sets of vehicles came to a halt on either side of the open tent that had been set up for treaty purposes. Dignitaries from both sides climbed out of their vehicles and moved into the shelter. My gaze swept the soldiers accompanying Esan’s councilors. I spotted Loretta and Harrod, but Kaiden was nowhere to be seen.

  A heartbeat later, I realized why. He was here, on the wall, walking toward me. Joy danced through my heart, and I couldn’t help my silly smile. But that was all right. We had the time for silliness—and a whole lot more—now.

  He stopped beside me, his shoulder resting lightly against mine as he leaned on his forearms and s
tudied the meeting below.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be down there?” I asked, amused.

  His grimace made the scar that ran from above his eye to the base of his chin—a souvenir from a Mareritt knife that had come far too close—stand out starkly. It would fade in time, as the one on his neck had, but for now, it remained a vivid reminder of just how close I’d come to losing him. “Yes, but I’d still rather shoot the bastards than talk pretty with them, so it’s better if I remain out of the way.”

  I chuckled softly. “Kiva said something very similar.”

  “Kiva is a very sensible drakkon.”

  And Kaiden is wise, she said.

  As far as males go, Oma added.

  I laughed, a sound that echoed through the expectant hush holding the pass captive. Drakkons rose on their hind legs, their wings outstretched and gleaming as they bugled in response, filling the air with their happiness.

  It might have been a hard-fought victory, with a high cost to both human and drakkon, but that sound made everything worthwhile.

  I blinked back the prickling tears. “Do you honestly think the Mareritt will hold to the agreement?”

  “In the short term, yes. Long term, maybe.” He shrugged, the movement momentarily increasing the depth of contact between us. Desire shimmered through me. This man’s body—and the delight it could offer—might now be as familiar to me as my own, but a simple touch still had the power to stir. And always would. “They are by nature a warrior race, but they’ve traded peacefully with other countries for centuries. There’s every chance that they’ll now do the same with us.”

  “And if they don’t, we rattle their cities again.”

  “Indeed.” He was silent for a moment. “I’ve accepted the appointment as fortress commander.”

  My gaze shot to his. “I thought you were planning to buy a farm somewhere and live out your life growing vegetables and raising fat swine?”

  “In my more insane moments, I certainly did contemplate that.” He turned to face me, a smile on his lips and his heart in his eyes. “But can you honestly imagine me tending fields? I’m just as likely to kill the crops as raise them.”