Remnant: Warwitch Book 1

by Teresa Rook

“I’m doing this for you,” Riksher says. “Nothing good will come of you sticking by Darga. You belong at home where I can protect you.”

  “Salis isn’t safe for me, and you know it.” Another lunge by Riksher, another evasion by Ennis.

  “I won’t let anything happen to you.”

  “You’re Dyren’s big brother. He’ll do whatever he must to forgive you. Me, he owes no loyalty to. He’ll kill me, Riksher, you know that.”

  “I won’t let him. You won’t be a Cirinese slave. That’s insane.”

  There’s a third attempt, and this time Ennis redirects with more force and Riksher goes pitching forward with a terrible crack. Ennis’s face goes chalky at the sound. It takes us all a second to realize what’s happened. To Riksher’s credit, he doesn’t make a sound.

  “His foot caught in the tracks,” I say, too shocked at this fight do anything but narrate. Ennis immediately drops to his knees beside him, angry but still a brother. “His leg’s messed up.” My own leg aches at the memory. Riksher won’t be going anywhere with us.

  “We go now,” Yarlin hisses from the entryway.

  Ennis and I each lift Riksher by an arm. He grunts and growls between us as we drag him from the station. Yarlin is right. A terrifying red glow is cast on the ground before us. Just up the mountain is the lava, creeping fast. It reaches a stunted tree and eats through its trunk in seconds. The heavy evergreen hurtles down the mountain and lands close enough to us that the ground shakes.

  Ennis looks at me in a panic, asking me to make the call. I don’t want to—I so don’t want to—but Ennis shouldn’t have to either. Ennis can’t.

  “We leave him,” I say.

  twenty-nine

  But we can’t just leave him.

  The plan is simple. Ennis and I lure a few Chirals to the station, where Riksher lays helpless with a twisted ankle. We break off over the crest of a moderate hill and head west, where we’ll meet Yarlin at the westernmost edge of town and hope the lava hasn’t gotten that far. Then we cross the mountain to the relative safety of Cirrin. But we must move fast.

  Ennis and I stumble into a town square where at least ten Chirals are present, shouting down at a handful of Rens. Way more than we bargained for. I halt and silently gesture for Ennis to do the same, but as we try to retreat unseen, a Ren child points to us and cries out.

  “Run,” I say through a rising white noise in my head. “Run!”

  My leg screams at me as we make a mad dash uphill, back the way we came. Horns blast behind us, calling for backup. We’ve found the black pup and the Barnab traitor, I imagine them saying. Wanted at all costs, dead or alive.

  We stay just barely ahead of the soldiers. The run is killing me, but we’re almost to the hill where we can lose them. From its crest, we see the train station, but instead of going straight, we veer sharply to the left. We take refuge behind a half-collapsed wall, its smooth black stone snapped off to create a deadly razor’s edge along the top. I count as the Chirals run past, and I hear the shouts once they find Riksher. Ennis and I cautiously creep out from our hiding place and continue west, only to be stopped short by a fresh and snaking stream of lava.

  “Shit,” I say, and Ennis seems to agree. We’re cut off from the west side of the mountain.

  “There!” somebody yells behind us, and we turn to see two stragglers, one Chiral and one Ren, running full-tilt towards us. I look around wildly and spot a building with its door open.

  “In there,” I urge Ennis, and we dart inside. I take the spiral stairs two at a time as our pursuers follow. We’re eventually deposited on the roof where, on one side, we have a perfect view of Riksher and the station, and on the other, the road itself being eaten away by the lava. The building quakes, and I grab a flag pole, planted right next to the stairway, for support. We must cross somehow.

  The young Ren emerges from the stairway first, red-faced and puffing. She looks nothing like Yarlin, not only younger but built completely different, with straight hair and brown skin the same shade as my own. The garb she wears matches Yarlin’s, but the resemblance ends there.

  I hold out my hands in a gesture of non-aggression as she advances. “We didn’t come here to hurt you,” I say, knowing even as I say it that it will do no good. If she doesn’t help the Chirals, they won’t help her people. Dyren’s trapped them all in here, and unless he gets his way, the city will melt with the Rens still inside.

  She lunges at me, and I messily side-step, but it’s enough to buy me a few more seconds. I hear Ennis grunt as the Chiral charges him, but I have my hands full with the Ren girl. She’s drawn a sword from her belt and points it at me with two hands. When she rushes me, I can’t get out of the way in time, and the weapon slices through a thin layer of muscle above my collarbone. I probably scream, but I can’t hear it through the pounding of blood in my ears. I have no weapon and no balance. Ennis, though he’s in better shape than I am at this point, stands no chance against a trained Chiral soldier.

  The girl swings at me again, and this time I do better. The blade slices shallowly through the skin on my arm with only a few specks of blood, a near miss. I don’t have many more dodges in me, and the edge of the building is only a few steps back. I’m breathing so hard it’s making me dizzy. I feel the heat of the lava on my back. “Stop,” I beg. “Please. This won’t help you. This won’t fix anything.”

  She inhales deeply through her nose. She’s not doing this because she wants to. Has she ever killed anyone before? “I know,” she says quietly enough that I have to read her lips for it. Then she rushes me again. I jump backwards until my heels are just at the edge of the building, causing her thrust to fall short. Her sword slows in front of me, at the end of its arc, and I clap my hands together around the blade. The Ren’s eyes go wide as I tighten my fingers around the steel and blood spurts out from the spaces between them. I pivot and pull, dragging her off balance. I spin and she stumbles towards me, then past me. She’s tossed from the roof with a scream and lands in the lava, where the fire engulfs her almost immediately. I choke down a sob, hoping it’s quick.

  Ennis and his attacker have the same idea. With short, shallow breaths, I throw myself towards them as they struggle, about to go off the edge together, neither one able to get any leverage. I dive and catch Ennis under the arms as they both pitch over. The Chiral drops and burns. I drag Ennis back onto the roof, and then I’m reduced to a coughing fit that sends me to my knees and eventually my back. Black creeps in from the corner of my eyes and closes in on Ennis, bent over me and shouting, shaking me.

  Black. Nothing.

  #####

  The two girls are back together, after the big fire. I don’t know how they found each other, but I’m glad they did. I flood with relief and gratefulness, a feeling that’s light and purple like flowers bending in the breeze. I watch as the toddler clings to the older girl, who strokes the back of her head and whispers words I can’t make out. But they come in the air and on the wind and through my bones, because I know the song.

  We hide in walls of water and light,

  For we are sea and sky and earth…

  thirty

  I’m only out for a few seconds. I come to with Ennis’s face bent close to mine, eyes wide. He sighs in relief and sits back when he sees my eyes flutter open. I swallow my pain and put a hand to my head. “We have to go.”

  “Can you walk?”

  “Have to.” I push myself unsteadily to my feet, leaning heavily on Ennis. I make us hobble to the edge of the roof. The bodies are gone, sunk into a smooth river of lava.

  The building shifts under our feet.

  “You go first. Try hanging, maybe?”

  It takes me a moment to understand what Ennis is saying, but then I see it: a thin wooden pole that stretches from our roof right across the river, its other end lying flat on the roof of the house to the west. A purple flag flashes violently in the space between, updrafts from the lava sending it into a frenzy. The quakes snapped the pole in two,
and Ennis aimed it across the gap?

  “We have to cross somehow,” Ennis says apologetically at my pause.

  I nod. “I’ll go.”

  This is by far the most terrifying thing I have ever done. Common wisdom dictates not to look down, but I can’t help myself. It’s transfixing, the reds and oranges and blacks moving in tandem, rolling over one another. It reminds me of runes. I force one hand in front of the other, my good leg wrapped around the pole at the knee, my bad leg curled up by my torso. It’s an uphill, upside-down climb that I make inches at a time. When I finally reach the other building, I haul myself up and lay on the roof, panting. I try to watch Ennis cross but I have to focus on catching my breath. Please make it. Please make it.

  I try to roll onto my hands and knees, but the earth gives another mighty heave, and I slam hard onto the roof, facedown. Stars erupt and I try to blink through them, feeling the tears on my cheeks as I will my eyes to work. The rumbling is still going, and any attempt to get to my feet would be futile. I hope the building holds.

  And then a great crack, and the home on the other side of the river collapses into the lava, bringing the other end of the flagpole with it, Ennis only halfway across.

  I scream and throw myself to the front of the roof, holding my torso out over the edge to see. The pole is quickly sliding from its fulcrum beside me as its opposite end is eaten away by the fire.

  Ennis still clings to it, holding on with all his might. “Ennis!” I scream as the pole sinks deeper into the lava, bringing my friend with it. “Ennis!”

  And then he’s scrambling vertically up the pole, his hands flying past one another as he races almost parallel to the side of the building. The flagpole gives out when he’s too far from the top, but I stretch both my arms down to him and he catches them. It feels like they’re being ripped out of their sockets. Ennis braces his feet against the wall and I pull him up. We collapse together at the top, breathing hard.

  Ennis gets to his feet first. “Oh. Hah. Wow,” he says, giving a jump and a little midair kick. “Wooooo-ow.” I close my eyes and allow myself a smile. He’s okay.

  Back on my feet, down the stairs, and we’ve made it across the lava river. The side of this building is beginning to break down, its sharp angles bending with the heat, the river swallowing it brick by brick. The river is wider uphill, the volume of lava increasing by the second. How much fire can one mountain hold? There will be nothing left of Ventrin—or, I think with a pang, of the trains.

  And the Rens. Without Ennis and I, will the Chirals let them leave?

  “I thought you’d been caught,” Yarlin says when we finally make it to her. She clamps my shoulder, hard, and looks into my eyes. “It’s a tough climb.”

  I look up. The lava is coming down in four distinct streams now, the westernmost one terrifyingly close. But if we can round the mountain quickly, we should be able to avoid it.

  “We’re ready,” Ennis says, rolling his shoulders. “Let’s do this while there’s still some mountain left. Here.” He holds out a length of cord I hadn’t noticed. He must have cut it from the flag pole. “Darga won’t be able to make this on her own. Her leg’s too bad. We’ll have to secure her somehow, or she’ll fall.” He looks at me. “I’m sorry. I know you like to do things on your own.”

  I frown. It’s true, but I also like surviving.

  We rig it so that I wear the cord like a harness around my torso, with the slack attached to Yarlin on one end and Ennis on the other. It’s a good thing we do, because Ennis is right; my leg gives out not ten feet up the mountain. The little footholds are too awkward and too far apart, and I can’t keep my grip. The first time I fall I’m sure I’m going to die, but the harness catches me with a snap. “Sorry,” I whisper through the pain constricting my midsection. I get my footing and we continue to ascend.

  “It gets easier,” Yarlin yells down at me. “Once we’re higher than the city.”

  This feels like it takes agonizing hours to accomplish, but eventually we reach a narrow ledge and I can rest, my good leg hanging off the edge. Yarlin gazes down at her burning city, her face unreadable. Ennis kneels by my side.

  “How are you holding up?”

  I smile and wince. “I’ll be okay.”

  “I’m sorry that this…about everything. You know that, I hope? That all of this…I wish it wasn’t my fault. I’m so sorry.”

  “Shh. It’s not your fault.”

  “It is. I let Riksher get this way. I brought Dyren here. I tried to burn this city and every other one we’ve passed. I abandoned you.”

  “Riksher abandoned me. And I don’t blame him,” I say, head leaned against the sheer mountain face, eyes closed, breathing deep and trying to will away the pain in my leg and the exhaustion plaguing my mind and body. “I wasn’t honest with you. It’s okay that you don’t trust me.”

  I crack an eye when he doesn’t respond. His lips are pursed and he’s looking at me with eyes that little bit scrunched, the way they get when you’re trying not to be hurt. I brush his face with the tips of my fingers. “I’m not mad,” I whisper.

  “I do trust you,” he whispers back. “I’m here now. I’m going to help you fix it all.”

  #####

  “Shit,” Yarlin says. Ennis and I look up at her. She points down the mountain. “They’re coming.”

  She’s right. They’re slower than we were, trial and error guiding their path, but they’re making progress, Chirals climbing the mountain to get to us. Yarlin backs away from the lip and presses herself flush against she mountain. I pull my leg up. “Did they see us?” I ask.

  “I don’t know. They don’t seem to know where they’re going. They’re spread out all along the base.”

  “Riksher,” Ennis growls. He’s probably right. Riksher told them our plan.

  “We move faster,” Yarlin says. I push down the exhaustion and clamber to my feet.

  Yarlin leads us further up the mountain, and she’s right, it does get easier. Soon we’re barely climbing at all, mostly just following single-file along paths that snake back and forth up the mountain. A few times Yarlin makes us jump, an attempt to get even further west, off the obvious path. Once the Chirals reach the ledges, they’ll speed up. We can’t outrun them, not with me in the state I’m in. Cirrin is still far away. It’s a long climb.

  “They’re closing in,” Yarlin says, a touch of anxiety colouring her voice. I’ve never heard anything but assurance from her before. “They’re too close to the pass. We can’t get through. Damn it. I don’t know what to do.” Lava spills down the mountain to the right, mercifully blocked above us by a sprout of rock that’s remained steady. But it cuts Yarlin’s available pathways in half, and to the left are the Chirals, spreading out, searching higher, sharp-eyed and angry.

  Ennis begins to untie himself from our safety tether, smiling to stop my protest. “We can’t get trapped up here,” he says. “They want me more than you.”

  “Don’t,” I say in my firmest tone. I lock eyes with him and hold his gaze. Don’t you dare go.

  “I’m just going to look. No offense,” he says to Yarlin, who shakes her head, unoffended. “I know this is your territory. But we must have missed something. A different jump we could have made. Maybe we have to swing down instead, follow a lower path at a steeper angle. If there’s something, I’ll find it.”

  I grip his pant leg and tug until he looks at me. “Don’t do anything stupid,” I say. “I mean it. We’re getting out of this together, you and me both.”

  He pauses and then nods. “I’m just looking.”

  He heads back the way we came, both hands braced against the side of the mountain. He goes slowly, inspecting the mountain for signs of an alternate route. When he rounds a bend out of sight, I stop craning my neck and fall back against the rock. I catch Yarlin watching me. She reddens and looks away.

  “How long have you known each other?”

  I shrug. “A few months.”

  “You’re very g
ood at getting people to like you.”

  “Hah! No. Ennis is an anomaly. He decided to like me right away, I think, and that hasn’t worn off. Despite everything.”

  “So, most people are more like Riksher?”

  I tap my fingers against the rock. “Even Riksher isn’t usually like Riksher. This is new. He wasn’t my friend, exactly, but we mostly got along.”

  “Until he realized you were lying about the runes.”

  I look at the sky. “It’s not as bad as it sounds. I needed to save my people, and Riksher wouldn’t have helped me otherwise.”

  “Would Ennis have?”

  I sigh. “Probably. I think so.”

  “So, you feel guilty for lying to him.”

  “Am I being interrogated?”

  “You care very much for him.”

  I smile, just a little. “He’s good. I know it might not seem like it to you, after…” I wave vaguely to the city below us, mercifully out of sight, blocked by the mountain. “But he’s got a good heart.”

  “You love him?”

  I purse my lips to the side. “I suppose, in some ways.”

  “Not the way he loves you, though.”

  I roll my eyes. “Now you, too? If he thinks he does, he’s wrong. That’s not what I’m made for.”

  “And yet you don’t tell him otherwise.” She smiles and sits back against the wall, gazing out at the sun that creeps lower into the sky, casting the horizon in red and pink.

  “Tell me something about yourself,” I say. She raises an eyebrow, and I nod at the sunset. “Come on. There’s a moment in the making here.”

  “There’s nothing to tell,” she says. “I just want to know how you do it.”

  “Do what?”

  “Make everyone love you.”

  I shake my head. “I can’t believe that’s how I’m coming across to you.”

  “People are drawn to help you. That’s no small thing.”

  “Enough about me. For real. Who are you, Yarlin?”

  She shrinks back from my curiosity. “Nobody.”